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LIBRARY 

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CADWALLADER   GOLDEN 

A   REPRESENTATIVE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 
OFFICIAL 


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CADWALLADER  COLDEN 

A   REPRESENTATIVE   EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY   OFFICIAL 


BY 


ALICE   MAPELSDEN    KEYS,   Ph.D. 


Neirt  ^axk 
THE   COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 

THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY,  AGENTS 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 

1906 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1906, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1906. 


Norfaooti  PrrgB 

J.  8.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Jforwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


F 

r 


The  monograph  which  Miss  Keys  has  prepared  on  Cadwallader 
Colden,  and  which  is  now  published,  is  distinctly  an  original  con- 
tribution to  the  history  of  New  York  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
It  has  been  written  almost  wholly  from  first-hand  sources,  and  of 
those  a  large  part  still  exist  only  in  manuscript.  It  throws  light 
on  a  period  of  history  hitherto  little  studied  and  imperfectly  under- 
stood. Its  aim  is  neither  wholly  historical  nor  wholly  biographical, 
but  is  rather  a  combination  of  the  two.  It  is  the  study  of  a  long 
official  career  considered  as  an  illustration  of  the  political  and 
social  system  which  then  existed  in  one  of  the  leading  provinces  of 

America. 

HERBERT  L.  OSGOOD. 


308 

V 


PREFACE 

It  would  be  idle  to  affirm  that  patriotism  depends  on 
knowledge,  or  even  on  tradition ;  it  would  be  equally  idle  to 
deny  that  a  sense  of  kinship  with  a  country's  past,  springing 
from  at  least  a  general  familiarity  with  its  development,  and 
sustained  by  many  visible  reminders  of  its  history,  has  much 
to  do  with  the  making  of  good  citizens.  Surely,  in  the  face 
of  much  contrary  evidence,  England's  storied  cities  have  had 
a  large  share  in  forming  the  character  of  her  people ;  while 
here  in  America,  despite  political  corruption  and  social  frivol- 
ity, Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts  stand  for  the  ideas  for 
which  their  fathers  fought  to  an  extent  perhaps  impossible 
were  not  the  old  houses  and  halls  in  which  these  men  lived 
and  spoke  still  so  full  of  their  spirit.  It  must  therefore  be 
regretted  that  New  York  has  so  few  landmarks,  and  that, 
perhaps  for  this  reason,  so  little  is  known  of  the  men  and 
women  who  made  her  history  in  the  century  that  elapsed 
between  Father  Knickerbocker's  nominal  departure  and  the 
Revolution.  Too  cosmopolitan  even  then  to  produce  a  type, 
that  fact  in  itself  is  a  link  with  the  present,  and  it  was  in  the 
hope  of  suggesting  that  there  are  many  more  such  links  that 
this  sketch  of  one  of  the  predominant  characters  of  this 
middle  period  was  undertaken.  So  far  as  possible  the  four 
phases  of  his  life  here  considered  have  been  treated  indepen- 
dently of  each  other,  the  detailed  account  of  his  work  as 
surveyor-general,  for  instance,  being  quite  unnecessary  to  an 
understanding  of  his  career. 


viii  Preface 

With  the  exception  of  the  printed  authorities  mentioned  in 
the  text,  the  materials  for  these  pages  have  been  found  in 
the  manuscript  collection  known  as  the  Golden  Papers,  and 
owned  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society.  The  courtesy 
of  the  society  in  permitting  their  use  is  hereby  gratefully 
acknowledged,  thanks  being  also  due,  in  an  especial  manner, 
to  Professor  H.  L.  Osgood,  of  Columbia  University,  without 
whose  invaluable  suggestions  and  advice  this  study  could  not 
have  been  completed. 


CONTENTS 

A   COLONIAL   SAVANT 

PAGES 

Colden's  education  in  Scotland  —  Settlement  in  Philadelphia  — 
Removal  to  New  York  —  "The  Five  Indian  Nations" — His 
correspondents  —  Peter  Collinson  —  John  Bartram  —  John 
Rutherford  —  Benjamin  Franklin  —  "An  Explanation  of  the 
First  Causes  of  Action  in  Matter,  etc."  —  Attempts  at  mechanical 
invention  —  A  botanical  success  —  Views  on  education  —  A 
practical  achievement — Other  accomplishments         .        .         .  1-26 

A   COLONIAL   SURVEYOR    GENERAL 

Colden  appointed  surveyor  general  of  New  York  —  Condition  of  the 
land  records  —  Land  policy  of  the  proprietary  governors  —  The 
great  grants  of  Dongan  and  Fletcher  —  Bellomont's  restrictive 
policy  —  Free  subdivision  under  Governors  Nanfan  and  Corn- 
bury —  Instructions  to  Lovelace  —  Colden's  early  surveys  —  His 
struggle  for  accuracy — His  memorial  to  the  home  government 
—  His  opposition  to  the  partition  acts  —  A  second  memorial  — 
Its  results  —  The  Connecticut  boundary  —  Colden's  part  in  the 
settlement  of  1725  —  The  Oblong  —  Governor  Cosby's  hunger 
for  land  —  Letters  from  Daniel  Horsmanden  —  Colden's  memorial 
to  Cosby  —  More  letters  from  Horsmanden  —  Cosby's  illness 
and  death  —  Statesmanlike  schemes  of  Lieutenant-Governor 
Clarke  —  Protection  of  Indian  rights — Casual  correspondents  — 
Colden's  carelessness  in  settling  the  Oblong  account  —  Interval 
in  land  speculation  caused  by  King  George's  War  —  Colden's 
commission  granted  for  life  —  Governor  Clinton's  suspicions  of 
Colden's  good  faith  —  His  growing  interest  in  land  —  Character- 
istic letters  —  Effects  of  the  last  French  War  —  Delancey's  proc- 
lamation—  Colden's  land  policy  as  chief  magistrate  —  Difficulty 
with  New  Hampshire  —  The  "Hampshire  grants"  —  Inconsist- 


Contents 

PAGES 

ency  of  the  instructions  —  Trouble  with  Sir  William  Johnson  — 
Colden's  suggestions  incorporated  in  a  new  partition  act  —  Criti- 
cism of  his  disinterestedness  by  the  Board  of  Trade  —  His  de- 
fence —  The  council's  representations  on  the  disputed  boundaries 
and  Colden's  reply  —  Confusion  caused  by  grants  made  in  Eng- 
land—  The  government's  request  for  a  report  on  official  fees  — 
Colden's  resentment  of  the  insinuation  —  His  conviction  of  the 
cause  of  land  abuses  —  Examples  —  His  trouble  with  the  Holland 
syndicate  —  Van  Rensselaer's  patent  —  The  "  Hampshire  grants  " 
again 27-105 


A   COLONIAL   POLITICIAN 

I 

Colden's  political  d^but  —  His  challenge  to  the  landed  interest  and 
its  effect  —  Governor  Burnet's  Indian  policy  —  Colden's  coopera- 
tion—  Opposition  of  the  merchants  and  its  defeat  —  Foundation 
of  Oswego  —  Unpopularity  of  Burnet  and  Colden  —  Stephen 
Delancey  —  Burnet's  transfer  to  Boston  and  Colden's  retirement 
to  the  country  —  Advance  of  the  popular  party  during  the  admin- 
istration of  Governor  Montgomerie — Colden  coquets  with  politics 

—  Governor  Cosby — Daniel  Horsmanden — Colden's  threatened 
suspension  —  George  Clarke  lieutenant-governor  —  His  relations 
with  Colden 106-131 

n 

Governor  Clinton  —  His  character — His  submission  to  Delancey  — 
King  George's  War — The  assembly's  indifference  —  Capture  of 
Louisburg  —  New  assembly — Colden  on  Indian  affairs  —  Clin- 
ton's break  with  Delancey  —  Canadian  expedition  —  Colden  be- 
comes Clinton's  prime  minister  —  His  task  —  Indian  conference 
and  rendezvous  of  colonial  forces  at  Albany  —  Clinton  com- 
mander-in-chief—  Winter  plans  —  Return  of  Colden  and  Clinton 
to  New  York 132-149 

III 

Colden's  opportunity  —  Clinton's  speech  to  the  assembly — Its  effect 

—  Report  of  the  seizure  of  provisions  at  Albany  —  The  assem- 


Contents  xi 

PAGES 

bly's  action  —  Colden's  failure  to  read  the  situation  —  The  coun- 
cil's  attack  on  Colden  —  His  departure  for  Coldengham  —  The 
council's  charges  —  Colden's  defence  —  Letters  from  Kennedy 
and  Rutherford  —  Military  affairs  —  Recall  of  Colden  .      1 50-166 

IV 

The  assembly's  resentment  at  Colden's  recall  —  Colden's  vindication 
of  Clinton  —  The  assembly's  reply  —  Mutiny  of  the  volunteers  — 
Clinton's  departure  for  Albany  —  The  ministry's  silence  —  Letters 
from  Colden  —  Clinton's  difficulties 166-176 

V 

Return  of  Clinton  and  Colden  to  New  York  —  Colden's  tactics  —  The 
administration's  proposition  for  the  fall  campaign  —  The  assem- 
bly's demand  for  details  —  Its  refusal  —  Destruction  of  Fort 
CHnton  —  The  Indians  —  Clinton's  demand  —  Its  evasion  —  His 
peremptory  speech  —  Assembly  dramatics  —  Two  points  of  view 

—  Confused  policy  of  the  ministry  —  Dissolution  of  the  assembly 

—  Colden's  position  —  His  return  to  Coldengham       .         .      176-193 

VI 

An  election  campaign  —  Political  literature  —  Clinton's  helplessness 

—  His  suspicions  —  James  Delancey  lieutenant-governor  —  Clin- 
ton's attempt  to  be  his  own  prime  minister  —  James  Alexander 

—  The  assembly's  advantage  —  Colden  again  recalled        .       193-206 

VII 

Indian  conference  at  Albany  —  Sympathy  between  Governor  Shirley 
and  Colden — Shirley's  report  on  the  province  of  New  York  — 
Prestige  of  the  Delanceys  —  Mrs.  Clinton  —  Colden  returns  to 
New  York  on  Shirley's  suggestion  —  Clinton's  dread  of  the  result 

—  Affair  of  the  prisoners  —  Wrangling  of  governor  and  assembly 

—  Delancey's  attack  on  Colden  —  Colden's  defence  and  departure 
from  town 206-2 1 5 

VIII 

Continued  silence  of  the  ministry  —  Importunities  of  Colden  and 
Clinton — Clinton's   fears  —  Colden's   refusal  to   come  to  New 


xii  Contents 

PAGES 

York  —  His  proposition  for  the  conduct  of  Indian  affairs  —  Oliver 
Delancey's  escapades  —  Colden's  continued  refusal  to  come  to 
town  —  Prorogation  of  the  assembly 215-224 

IX 

Colden's  return  and  the  assembly  —  The  administration's  sensible 
demands  obscured  by  bitter  quibbling  on  parliamentary  proced- 
ure—  The  session  resolved  into  a  personal  controversy  —  The 
governor's  financial  position  —  Colden's  description  of  the  situa- 
tion to  Shirley  —  Clinton's  new  friends  —  Chief  Justice  Morris  — 
Memorial  to  England  —  Excitement  over  the  excise  bill  —  Con- 
fusion of  parties  —  Bedford's  oracular  approval  —  The  episode  of 
the  Greyhound  ........      224-241 


Colden's  refusal  to  meet  a  new  assembly  —  Clinton  suspects  Colden 
of  sarcasm  —  Alexander  as  peacemaker  —  The  Board  of  Trade's 
report  on  New  York  —  Inter-colonial  Indian  conference  at  Albany 

—  Colden's  "State  of  Indian  Affairs"  —  Another  new  assembly 

—  Colden's  disgust  at  Clinton's  vacillation  —  The  ministry's  de- 
cision to  uphold  prerogative  in  New  York  —  Arrival  of  Sir 
Danvers  Osborne  —  His  death  —  Delancey's  succession  and 
Clinton's  retirement 242-259 


A   COLONIAL   EXECUTIVE 

I 

Colden  succeeds  Delancey  —  French  and  Indian  War  —  Social 
changes  during  Colden's  retirement  —  Colden's  negotiations  with 
Pownall  for  the  lieutenant-governorship  —  Surrender  of  Canada 
—  Accession  of  George  III 260-268 

II 

New  York's  lawyers  —  The  Whig  Club  —  Colden's  antipathy  to  the 
Independents  —  Colden's  refusal  to  pass  a  bill  changing  the 
tenure  of  Supreme  Court  judges  —  Arrival  of  his  commission  as 
lieutenant-governor — His  efforts  to  correct  abuses  in  the  land 


Contents  xiii 

PAGES 

system  and  to  maintain  the  laws  of  trade  —  Effect  of  hisunpopu- 
.  larity  —  Mr.  Benjamin  Prat  —  General  Monckton  governor  of 
New  York  without  instructions  —  Colden's  request  for  them  — 
Smith's  use  of  Monckton's  friendship  —  Disposition  of  the  returns 
of  government  —  Monckton's  departure  for  Martinique  —  Assem- 
bly yf//^jj^ —  Land  grants  —  Discovery  of  Colden's  negotiations 
with  Secretary  Pownall 268-289 

III 

The  assembly  and  the  volunteers —  T/ie  American  Chronicle —  Land 
fever  —  Monckton's  return  from  the  South  —  His  departure  for 
England  —  England's  colonial  policy  —  Assembly  of  1764  —  The 
Sugar  Act  —  Other  threatened  trade  restrictions  —  The  assem- 
bly's address  —  Colden's  unfortunate  reply  .         .         .      290-300 

IV 

Thomas  Forshey  vs.  Waddell  Cunningham  —  The  attorney-general's 
attitude  on  appeals  —  Colden  issues  a  writ  opposed  by  the  coun- 
cil —  Attitude  of  the  judges  —  The  council's  declaration  on 
appeals  —  Colden's  reply  to  the  judges  —  The  32d  and  33d  instruc- 
tions—  Journalistic  wit       . 300-312 


The  Stamp  Act  —  Riot  at  Boston  —  New  York  stamp  distributor  re- 
signs—  Colden's  protest  against  the  Stamp  Act  congress  — 
Arrival  of  the  stamps  —  Their  removal  to  the  Fort  —  Decision 
of  the  privy  council  on  appeals 312-319 

VI 

Excitement  caused  by  Colden's  renewal  of  his  oath  of  office  —  Wild 
rumors  —  Riot  of  November  ist  —  Colden's  agreement  to  let  the 
stamps  alone  —  New  demands  —  "The  rebel  drummer  "  —  Stamps 
yielded  to  the  mayor  —  Arrival  of  Sir  Henry  Moore  —  Departure 
of  Colden  for  Flushing  —  "  State  of  the  People  of  the  New  York  " 

—  Resemblances  between  Colden  and  Grenville  —  The  new  gov- 
ernor's policy  —  Verdict  of  the  assembly  on  Colden's  attitude 
towards  appeals  —  England's  rebuke  of  his  cession  of  the  stamps 

—  The    Stamp   Act    considered  —  Colden's   vindication  —  Its 
indictment  by  the  Supreme  Court 319-335 


xiv  Contents 


VII 


A  Whig  defeat  —  Dissolution  of  the  assembly  —  The  Whigs  again 
unsuccessful  —  Sir  Henry's  death  —  Colden  chief  magistrate  once 
more  —  Paper  money  bill  passed  by  Colden  —  Motives  attributed 
to  him  —  "To  the  Betrayed  Inhabitants  of  the  City  and  Colony 
of  New  York  "  —  Action  of  the  assembly  —  Alexander  Macdougal 

—  His  indictment  —  Pivotal  state  of  New  York  —  Royal  disap- 
proval of  Colden  —  Reactionary  tendencies         .        .        .      335-348 

VIII 

Lord  Dunmore's  arrival  —  His  claim  on  Colden's  receipts  —  His  suit 
to  recover  —  Colden's  victory  —  William  Tryon  governor  —  Re- 
turns home  on  leave  of  absence  leaving  Colden  in  charge  —  New 
York's  committee  of  correspondence  —  Radicals  disapproved  — 
The  Charlotte  rebellion  —  Congress  at  Philadelphia  —  Non-im- 
portation agreement  —  Loyalist  victory  in  the  assembly  of  1775 

—  Radicals  regain  ascendancy  by  a  iottr  deforce  —  Colden's  final 
retirement  —  His  career  considered  as  a  whole   .        .        .      348-369 

Index .        .        -371 


A  COLONIAL  SAVANT 


CADWALLADER  GOLDEN 


A    COLONIAL   SAVANT 

A  New  York  historian,  in  contrasting  the  early  development 
of  education  in  the  New  England  colonies  with  its  neglect  in 
his  own  wealthier  province,  offers  as  evidence  a  list  of  the 
"Academics"  living  in  the  latter  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Fifteen  college  men  in  a  population  of 
nearly  a  hundred  thousand  is  not,  it  must  be  admitted,  a  large 
proportion/  But  if  it  be  remembered  that  New  York  had  had  a 
home  college  for  only  two  years  and  that  its  men  of  wealth  were, 
almost  without  exception,  Huguenot  merchants  and  Dutch 
traders,  it  will  not  seem  surprising  that  they  rushed  their  sons 
from  the  grammar  school  to  the  frontier,  the  counting  house,  or 
the  West  Indies,  when,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  their  descend- 
ants are  still  debating  the  advantages  of  education  in  a  mer- 
cantile career. 

Nevertheless,  the  list  as  it  stands  is  too  short,  for  it  omits 
the  name  of  at  least  one  university  man,  the  vigor  and  breadth 
of  whose  intellectual  Hfe  was  nothing  less  than  astonishing. 
This  was  Cadwallader  Colden,  long-time  member  of  the  council 
of  New  York,  surveyor-general  and  lieutenant-governor.  The 
son  of  a  Scotch  parson,  he,  too,  had  been  destined  by  his  family 
for  the  church,  and  with  that  end  in  view  his  father  prepared 

1  William  Smith's  "  History  of  the  Late  Province  of  New  York,"  Vol.  II,  pp. 
371  and  389-390, 

B  I 


2  Cadwallader  Colden 

him  for  college  and  entered  him  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
At  the  time,  nothing  would  have  seemed  more  unhkely  than 
that  the  solemn,  hard-working  boy  should  overturn  this  purpose. 
But  once  outside  the  manse,  he  developed  extraordinary  ambi- 
tion, and  the  mere  rudiments  of  science  then  taught  at  the 
University  roused  in  him  an  enthusiasm  that  was  to  be  lifelong/ 
Together  they  made  the  humdrum  existence  of  a  lowland 
minister  seem  intolerable.  Moreover,  he  was  convinced  that 
his  talents  lay  in  another  direction,  and  on  his  graduation  in 
1705  he  went  up  to  London  to  study  medicine.  And  just  as 
Edinburgh  had  won  him  to  science,  London  won  him  to  herself, 
and  he  felt  that  Hfe  would  scarcely  be  worth  the  living  could 
he  not  be  a  factor  in  her  stirring  progress.  He  shrank  from 
mediocrity  with  his  whole  soul,  and  he  felt  powerless  to  resist 
it  without  the  inspiration  and  opportunities  of  the  wonderful 
town.  By  the  time  his  studies  were  over,  however,  he  had 
learned  that  success  in  London  required  money,  and  of  that  he 
had  none.  So  when  a  sister  of  his  mother's,  a  notable  widow 
living  in  Philadelphia,  wrote,  suggesting  that  he  set  up  his 
practice  in  that  place,  the  possibiUties  of  Ufe  in  the  New  World 
offered  such  an  attractive  solution  of  his  problem  that  before 
many  months  he  was  deep  in  the  activities  of  the  Quaker 
capital. 

Here,  finding  that  for  a  time  patients  were  Ukely  to  be  few, 
he  became  interested  in  trade,  more  than  once  going  with  his 
cargoes  through  the  colonies  to  the  south  and  among  the  islands 
in  the  Caribbean.  But  he  was  restless  and  unsettled,  and  his 
family  had  reason  for  their  expectation  that  he  would  soon  be 
among  them  again.  And  after  five  years  of  hard  work  he  did 
go  home,  but  only  to  return  the  next  year,  this  time  with  a  wife 

'  The  authorities  for  Colden's  early  hfe  are  his  copies  of  letters  to  Peter 
Colhnson,  May,  1742,  and  to  Peter  Kalm,  1750,  as  well  as  his  correspondence 
in  the  New  York  Historical  Society's  Collection,  1711-1737. 


A  Colonial  Savant  3 

and  determined  to  be  a  colonist  for  good.  His  practice  now 
claimed  more  and  more  of  his  attention,  and  when,  in  1718,  he 
journeyed  up  to  New  York  for  rest  and  recreation,  he  had  every 
idea  of  being  a  Philadelphia  doctor  for  the  rest  of  his  Hfe.  But 
when  he  called  on  the  governor  to  pay  his  respects,  the  shrewd 
Scotchman  then  in  the  office  marked  him  at  once  as  a  man  of 
unusual  abihty.  Again  and  again  during  his  short  stay  he 
summoned  him  to  the  Fort,  and  a  few  months  later  wrote,  inviting 
him  to  come  to  New  York  as  master  in  chancery  and  surveyor- 
general. 

Golden  was  taken  completely  by  surprise,  but  he  did  not 
hesitate  long.  Colonial  physicians  made  their  fortunes  slowly, 
and  Golden  had  already  more  than  once  been  forced  to  decide 
between  more  books  and  mere  bread  and  clothes  for  his  family. 
Moreover,  the  desire  to  serve  his  country  had  always  been  a 
part  of  his  more  personal  ambition.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
was  becoming  known  as  a  scientist.  When  at  home  three  years 
before,  he  had  met  Edmund  Halley,  the  astronomer,  who  had 
shown  much  interest  in  his  work,  and  he  had  also  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  Royal  Society,  his  paper  on  "Animal  Secre- 
tion" having  been  read  at  one  of  its  meetings.  But  he  scarcely 
reahzed  how  many  of  his  keenest  pleasures  would  have  to  be 
sacrificed  if  he  went  to  New  York,  while  he  saw  the  advantages 
of  the  move  very  clearly.  He  therefore  accepted  Governor 
Hunter's  offer,  and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  entered  the 
pubHc  service  of  the  colony,  in  which  service  he  was  to  die 
fifty-eight  years  later.  During  much  of  this  time  he  was  deep 
in  factional  politics,  sometimes,  as  the  silent  spokesman  of  his 
party,  writing  his  chief's  letters,  messages,  speeches ;  sometimes 
the  chief  himself;  yet  for  many  years  spending  six  months  of 
the  twelve  in  the  open,  and  producing  an  almost  continuous 
succession  of  letters  and  memorials  on  a  hundred  timely 
topics. 


4  Cadwallader  Colden 

Under  these  circumstances,  his  scientific  and  Uterary  attain- 
ments, however  deficient  in  permanent  results,  must  be  consid- 
ered remarkable.  Indeed,  his  tastes  and  activities  were  so 
varied,  he  came  in  contact  with  so  many  men  of  so  many  minds, 
that  his  opportunities  for  influence  were  unusual,  and  he  might 
have  been  more  powerful  than  the  governor  himself.  Yet, 
for  some  reason,  he  just  missed  greatness  in  each  special  line 
of  effort  and  as  a  whole.  Given  a  more  commanding  physique, 
greater  charm  of  manner,  a  more  buoyant  temperament,  and 
contemporary  applause  at  least  might  have  been  won.  But, 
as  it  was,  an  insignificant  presence,  an  oftentimes  petty  sensi- 
tiveness, and  a  formahty  of  demeanour  that  rarely  unbent  save 
to  his  wife,  prevented  his  turning  a  unique  position  to  the 
best  account.  Yet  his  admirable  quaUties  of  mind  and  heart 
brought  him  the  devotion  of  his  official  servants  and  the  affec- 
tionate reverence  of  his  family,  while  his  friends  believed  in 
him  and  worked  for  him  to  the  end,  despite  the  discomfort 
he  often  caused  them  by  his  moodiness  and  caprice. 

Arrived  in  New  York,  Colden 's  new  occupations  at  first 
proved  so  absorbing  that  all  real  scientific  work  was  for  the 
time  laid  aside ;  but  his  trained  powers  of  observation  and 
accuracy  of  statement  found  plenty  of  exercise  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  plans  for  colonial  expansion  formed  by  the  governor 
who  had  succeeded  his  first  patron.  Moreover,  this  enhghtened 
official  promised  him  a  small  salary  for  compiHng  a  catalogue 
of  the  plants  and  animals  of  New  York.  The  necessary  investi- 
gation could  have  been  made  on  his  surveys,  but  Horace  Wal- 
pole,  the  auditor-general,  chose  that  moment  to  demand  his 
arrears,  which  put  an  end  to  all  unnecessary  expenditures.  So 
Colden  turned  his  scanty  leisure  to  other  uses,  and  in  1727  the 
first  part  of  the  work  to  which,  perhaps,  he  has  chiefly  owed  his 
hterary  reputation,  was  pubHshed  in  New  York  by  WilUam 
Bradford. 


A  Colonial  Savant  5 

This  was  his  "History  of  the  Five  Indian  Nations."  ^  The 
work  of  his  office  had  thrown  him  much  among  this  people, 
especially  the  Mohawks.  Sometimes  he  had  been  weeks  and 
even  months  alone  with  them  in  the  wilderness  of  central  New 
York ;  he  had  been  treated  by  them  as  a  brother,  being  regu- 
larly adopted  into  the  Mohawk  tribe,  and  of  their  loyalty  and 
honour  he  was  convinced.  He  believed  that  they  could  become 
self-supporting  in  a  less  precarious  way,  and  had  interested 
himself  in  their  knowledge  of  form  and  colour.  Indeed,  his 
inabihty  to  keep  a  skilled  interpreter  had  alone  prevented  him 
from  spending  still  more  time  in  their  study  and  in  forming  plans 
for  their  development.  But  his  history  is  not  enHvened  by  this 
intimate  knowledge.  Based  confessedly  on  the  French  narra- 
tives of  De  la  Potherie  and  La  Hontan,  it  is  a  dry  and  not 
always  consecutive  and  clear  account  of  the  wars  and  treaties 
of  the  Five  Nations  from  the  earhest  times  to  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  He  fails,  or  rather  does  not  even  attempt, 
to  humanize  his  subject,  and  in  his  introduction,  alone,  indicates 
its  practical  importance.  Yet,  Umited  in  scope  as  the  book 
was,  it  still  remains  one  of  the  authorities  for  the  history  of  the 
Iroquois,  and  at  the  time  had  an  instant  success.  The  edition 
of  five  hundred  copies  was  quickly  disposed  of,  and  its  readers 
were  not  confined  to  the  colonies.  The  eighteenth  century  was 
distinctly  the  age  of  the  dilettanti.  Anything,  provided  it  was 
"curious,"  was  eagerly  welcomed.  Hence,  the  first  English 
account  of  a  race  whose  fortunes  were  bound  up  with  those  of 
the  leading  colonizing  nations  of  the  time  was  read  less  on 
account  of  its  merits  than  of  its  novelty.  But  he  who  read 
could  not  but  learn  something  of  names  and  places.  And 
knowledge  of  the  American  situation  was  desirable  for  Eng- 
lishmen in  those  days,  when  the  outbreak  of  war  with  France 

*  "  The  History  Of  The  Five  Indian  Nations  Depending  On  The  Province  of 
New  York,"  by  Cadwallader  Golden.     New  York,  1727. 


6  Cadwallader  Colden 

was  to  see  them  under  the  leadership  of  a  prime  minister,  who, 
it  was  said,  heard  with  amazement  that  Cape  Breton,  the 
strategic  point  of  the  contest,  was  an  island,  running  oflF  to  tell 
the  king  the  "good  news."* 

About  the  year  1729,  Colden,  influenced  by  an  uncongenial 
poHtical  environment  and  by  the  expense  and  difiiculty  of  bring- 
ing up  his  family  in  town,  decided  to  hve  on  the  estate  which 
had  been  granted  him  along  the  line  between  Ulster  and  Orange 
counties.  He  had  called  his  manor,  where  he  had  already 
built  himself  a  manor-house,  Coldengham,  and  there  for  the 
next  twenty  years  he  spent  his  happiest  moments.  To  his 
mind  a  man  could  justify  his  existence  only  by  accomplishing 
something  for  the  advancement  of  knowledge  or  the  improve- 
ment of  the  world  as  a  place  to  Hve  in.  So,  when  disheartened 
by  failure  in  science  and  poKtics,  he  used  to  remind  himself 
that  he  had  claimed  a  httle  corner  of  the  universe  from  the 
forest,  the  bears,  and  the  wolves.  Intelligent  care,  in  fact,  did 
more,  and  before  many  years  his  deHghted  eyes  saw  his  acres 
so  transformed  that  they  brought  to  mind  the  lovely  country- 
seats  of  southern  Scotland  and  England.  Often  he  was  forced 
to  be  away  from  this  charming  spot  nine  months  in  a  year,  and 
at  the  best  of  times  he  was  frequently  absent.  But  when  at 
home,  his  wife,  who  was  his  comrade  as  well,  his  children,  his 
soils  and  his  planting,  his  books,  and,  above  all,  his  "specula- 
tions," as  he  called  his  scientific  experiments,  left  him  with  but 
one  desire  ungratified. 

This  was  his  natural  longing  for  some  one  with  whom  to  com- 
pare notes,  some  fellow- investigator  with  like  difficulties  and 
enthusiasms.  For  some  years  he  had  corresponded  with  his 
wife's  cousin,  James  Logan,  the  Pennsylvania  ofl&cial  and 
naturalist.  But  Logan  had  snubbed  Colden's  tendency  to  pry 
into  matters  of  pure  conjecture,  and  the  peace  was  with  difiiculty 

'  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Horace  Walpole. 


A  Colonial  Savant  7 

kept  between  them ;  the  spirited  comparison  of  cases  which  had 
at  one  time  passed  between  himself  and  certain  other  physicians 
had  been  gradually  pushed  aside  by  other  business  and  lack  of 
fresh  experience  on  his  part;  and  his  friend  and  fellow-coun- 
cillor, James  Alexander,  was  forced  to  fill  his  sheets  with  a  run- 
ning description  of  the  poHtical  situation.  There  remained  a 
friend  of  his  youth,  a  Boston  physician.  Dr.  William  Douglass. 
With  the  range  of  their  topics  limited  only  by  the  universe, 
he  and  Golden  had  first  talked  and  then  written  with  little 
thought  of  economy  until  the  removal  to  Coldengham.  Thence, 
however,  to  Boston,  the  distance  was  great  and  postage  expen- 
sive, so  letters  became  few.  But  Golden  never  had  a  want 
without  attempting  to  satisfy  it.  He  suggested  to  Douglass 
the  formation  of  a  literary  and  scientific  society  with  head- 
quarters at  Boston,  each  member  of  which  was  to  contribute 
a  paper  once  in  six  months,  to  be  criticised  by  the  Boston  mem- 
bers, corrected,  and  then  printed.  And  in  1736  the  first  publica- 
tion of  a  society  on  these  Unes,  but  composed  wholly  of  medical 
men,  was  issued  at  Boston,^  while  in  1 743  a  far  more  important 
result  of  his  eagerness  for  intellectual  sympathy  appeared  in 
Philadelphia.  This  was  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
whose  annual  discussions  have  been  maintained  continuously 
from  that  day  to  the  present,  the  suggestion  that  this  society 
should  be  formed  being  generously  credited  to  Golden,  by  its 
organizer  and  leader,  Benjamin  Franklin.^ 

Meanwhile,  however.  Golden  had  gained  a  correspondent 
who  satisfied  his  every  requirement,  and  became  indeed,  not 
only  his  friend  but  his  banker,  political  agent,  business  manager, 
critic,  and  inspiration.     This  fortunate  acquisition    was    Peter 

•  Letter  from  William  Douglass,  17th  February,  1736. 

^  This  claim  is  made  in  a  "  Biographical  Sketch  of  Cadwallader  Colden,"  in 
The  American  Medical  and  Philosophical  Register,  181 1,  Vol.  I,  pp.  297-303. 
The  letters,  however,  do  not  sustain  it,  Franklin  merely  thanking  Colden  for  the 
suggestion  of  some  philosophical  publication.  His  letter  was  written  November 
28,  1745. 


8  Cadwallader  Colden 

Collinson,  a  wealthy  London  merchant.  A  naturalist  himself, 
with  a  beautiful  garden  near  London  full  of  rare  vegetables 
and  fruits,  and  numbering  among  his  correspondents  scientists 
in  every  country  in  Europe,  he  yet  was  simpUcity  and  enthusiasm 
personified.  With  ingenuous  fervor,  he  thanks  Providence  for 
letting  him  live  to  see  the  pair  of  moose  horns  sent  from  America 
to  the  Duke  of  Richmond ;  he  throws  himself  with  impartiaUty 
into  the  affairs  of  the  earth,  the  air,  and  the  water ;  and  over  the 
first  experiments  in  electricity,  the  newly  discovered  power 
that  could  lay  a  "lusty"  Irish  bishop  on  the  ground,  he  is  fairly 
beside  himself. 

Gradually,  moreover,  other  men  of  like  tastes  came  into  his 
life,  each  stirring  his  ambition  by  the  incentive  of  a  hearty  ad- 
miration. Among  these  was  John  Bartram,  the  owner  of  the 
first  botanical  garden  in  America,  at  Kingsessing,  near  Phila- 
delphia. A  simple  Quaker  farmer,  a  chance  glance  at  a  daisy 
in  a  furrow  had  so  stirred  him  that  the  next  morning  he  walked 
into  Philadelphia,  went  directly  to  a  book  shop  and  asked  for  a 
book  which  could  tell  him  about  flowers  and  leaves.  And 
slowly  he  had  mastered  the  science  of  botany,  learning  languages 
by  the  way,  until  he  had  become  the  valued  agent  and  corre- 
spondent of  English  noblemen  and  continental  savants,  for  whom 
he  made  observations  and  collected  specimens.  Exploring  the 
Appalachian  slope  from  Connecticut  to  the  Carolinas,  in  all 
weathers,  at  all  times  of  the  year,  acquiring  an  influence  with  the 
Indians  that  his  province  was  quick  to  employ,  sometimes  ill 
from  exposure,  yet  always  eager  and  cheerful,  he  was  at  the 
same  time  a  practical  and  successful  farmer,  retaining  the  lead- 
ership of  his  family  and  servants  in  fine  patriarchal  fashion. 
Simple  and  single  minded,  it  was  hard  to  be  anything  else  in 
that  serene  presence,  and  there  Colden  could  always  forget 
the  difficulties  that  continually  beset  him.^ 

'  "  Letters  from  an  American  Farmer,"  by  J.  Hestor  St.  John.  Philadelphia, 
1793.     Letter  XI,  p.  189. 


A  Colonial  Savant  9 

A  friend  of  a  different  sort  was  John  Rutherford,  a  young 
Scotchman  who  had  come  over  to  command  the  regulars  at 
Albany.  Rutherford  belonged  to  one  of  the  county  famihes 
who  had  been  admirers  of  Golden 's  father,  and  despite  his 
youth  had  served  seven  years  in  Parliament.  Of  a  distinctly 
social  nature,  a  man  of  affairs  and  action,  he,  too,  was  a  student 
of  the  same  eager  type,  and,  though  separated  from  friends  and 
family,  could  find  the  idleness  of  a  long  Albany  winter,  "per- 
fectly agreable"  when  spent  in  the  company  of  mathematics, 
philosophy,  and  politics. 

Then  there  was  Linnaeus,  the  great  Swedish  botanist;  his 
pupil  Gronovius;  Peter  Kalm,  who  had  been  sent  to  America 
on  a  tour  of  investigation  by  the  Royal  Academy  of  Stockholm ; 
Samuel  Johnson,  who  was  to  be  the  first  president  of  King's 
College;  and,  above  all,  Benjamin  Franklin.  He  and  Golden 
had  fallen  in  with  each  other  one  day  on  a  journey ;  riding  awhile 
in  company,  Golden  had  suggested  a  correspondence,  and  a  long 
series  of  letters  resulted.  In  these  Franklin  is  delightful.  Per- 
fectly open  about  his  own  experiments,  confiding  the  first  sug- 
gestions of  some  of  his  most  noted  discoveries,  it  is  in  Golden's 
that  he  seems  most  interested,  and  no  hint  of  superiority  ever 
escapes  him.  Always  sympathetic,  ready  to  give  public  ex- 
pression to  his  confidence  and  admiration,  quick  to  offer  practical 
assistance  as  printer  and  pubHsher,  his  friendship  was  no  mere 
sentiment,  and  was  as  helpful  as  it  was  charming. 

Besides  these  new  friends,  moreover,  James  Alexander,  re- 
lieved involuntarily  from  pubHc  business,  was  devoting  his  in- 
creased leisure  to  scientific  research.  Under  no  illusions  as  to 
his  own  powers,  he  was  content  to  experiment  in  well-trodden 
fields,  but  he  beUeved  that  Golden  could  do  more  and  vigor- 
ously prodded  him  on,  while  saving  him  from  annoying  details 
and  doing  for  him  in  America  what  GolHnson  was  doing  in 
England.    In  return,  Golden  dedicated  to  him  in  terms  of 


10  Cadwallader  Colden 

unusual  warmth  a  little  volume  which  he  hoped  would  transmit 
the  names  of  them  both  to  posterity.  The  regard  of  posterity, 
indeed,  was  a  subject  of  which  Colden  and  his  two  closest 
friends  thought  entirely  too  much,  and  there  is  something  absurd 
as  well  as  touching  in  their  efforts  to  make  sure  of  recognition 
by  that  impartial  judge.  And  had  *'An  Explanation  of  the 
First  Causes  of  Action  in  Matter,  And  of  the  Cause  of  Gravita- 
tion "  ^  measured  up  to  its  title  such  recognition  would  doubtless 
have  been  won.  But  no  definite  conclusions  have  ever  been 
accepted  by  science  concerning  the  problems  whose  solution 
Colden  offers  with  these  confident  words:  "Though  I  may 
not  pretend  to  have  acquired  a  perfect  and  adequate  conception 
of  what  I  treat,  or  that  I  have  fallen  upon  the  best  Method  of 
conveying  to  others  the  Conception  which  I  have  formed  my- 
self, on  this  Subject;  the  Force  of  the  Evidence  on  my  Mind 
is  as  strong  as  that  of  Day  Light  after  the  Sun  is  up  in  cloudy 
weather." 

Newton  had  written  to  Bentley  that  he  wished  it  expressly 
understood  that  he  made  no  pretensions  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
workings  of  the  law  of  gravitation.  He  only  knew  that  it  was 
absurd  to  suppose  that  one  body  could  act  on  another  save  by 
mediate  or  immediate  contact,  but  the  medium  might  be  either 
material  or  immaterial,  and  he  had  no  theories  about  it  what- 
ever. This  medium  Colden  now  assumed  to  have  discovered, 
and  his  Hne  of  argument  was  somewhat  as  follows:  Matter, 
recognizable  by  its  essential  qualities,  extension,  and  impene- 
trabihty,  is,  he  demonstrates,  divided  into  three  classes,  each  of 
which  is  the  agent  of  an  exclusive  force,  motion,  resistance,  and 
reaction  respectively.  The  characteristic  example  of  the  third 
species  is  ether,  a  continuous  material  substance,  and  the  re- 
sult of  its  contact  with  bodies  of  resisting  and  moving  matter 

'Or,  "ThePrinciples  of  Action  in  Matter."  New  York,  1745:  London,  1746, 
8vo,  pp.  75. 


A  Colonial  Savant  ii 

is  gravitation.  This  interaction  is  worked  out  mathematically 
and  so  clearly  that,  as  Maria  Edgeworth  says  of  Cuvier's 
''Theoryof  the  Earth,  ""it  is  intelligible  tothemeanest  capacity." 
But  that  moving  matter  is  inherently  different  from  resisting 
matter,  because  motion  and  the  power  of  resistance,  of  which 
they  are  respectively  the  agents,  are  impenetrable  to  each  other, 
and  that  moving  matter  moves  of  itself,  and  not  by  the  action 
of  some  external  force,  is  so  contrary  to  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence that  the  following  demonstration,  if  interesting,  is  not 
convincing.  Moreover,  setting  aside  the  proof,  whose  faulti- 
ness  Colden  had  feared  might  obscure  the  truth  of  his  concep- 
tion, and  considering  the  theorem  itself,  the  discovery  from 
which  he  hoped  so  much,  it  must  be  admitted,  was  not  a  dis- 
covery at  all,  but  had  already  been  exploited  toward  the  close 
of  the  preceding  century  by  James  BernouilU,  of  the  famous 
Basel  family.  That  Colden  was  conscious  of  this  is,  however, 
inconceivable.  So  it  must  be  concluded  either  that  he  had 
never  read  Bernouilh's  treatise,  or  that  having  read  it  when 
young,  its  ideas  had  lain  dormant  in  his  mind  until,  becoming 
active,  he  had  mistaken  them  for  his  own. 

At  any  rate,  the  fact  made  little  impression  on  Colden's 
friends.  When  James  Logan,  for  instance,  told  FrankUn  of 
Bernouilli's  treatise,  Frankhn  was  quite  satisfied  when  he  added 
his  behef  that  Colden  had  never  seen  it,^  and  when  some  foreign 
mathematician  said  unpleasant  things  about  plagiarism,  Col- 
linson  ascribed  it  to  a  defective  understanding,^  and  Franklin 
to  envy.^  Still,  even  Franklin  and  ColHnson  were  obliged  to  con- 
fess that  those  of  their  friends  who  had  read  it  found  it  obscure 
and  even  unintelHgible,  and  though  Frankhn  was  sure  that  this 
was  due  to  insufficient  knowledge  on  their  part,  he  could  but 

'  Letter  from  Franklin,  October  i6,  1746. 
'  Letter  from  Collinson,  August  3,  1747. 
*  Letter  from  Franklin,  January,  1747/8. 


12  Cadwallader  C olden 

add  that  he  was  having  much  difficulty  with  it  himself.  But 
the  main  thing  was  to  get  people  to  read  it  at  all.  It  was  a  bad 
time  for  abstract  philosophy.  England,  whose  book  trade  has 
always  been  peculiarly  sensitive  to  public  events,  was  engaged 
in  war  with  France,  and  her  colonies  were  helping  her  as  they 
had  never  helped  before.  Indeed,  Golden  had  sent  his  first 
copies  to  Collinson  with  an  apology  for  being  absorbed  in  phi- 
losophy when  all  the  world  could  think  of  nothing  but  the  blow 
that  was  preparing  against  New  France. 

But  though  many  Englishmen  said  they  were  too  busy  to  read 
Colden's  thesis  and  others  that  they  could  not  understand  it,  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  bookseller  was  sufficiently  impressed  with  its 
possibilities  to  set  up,  without  Colden's  consent  or  even  knowl- 
edge, an  edition  of  his  own.  So  when  Colden's  second  packet  ar- 
rived a  year  later,  Collinson  found  England  so  well  supplied  that 
he  was  obliged  to  seek  a  market  on  the  continent.^  Here,  the 
Germans  found  the  last  nine  pages  absolutely  incomprehensible, 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  first  thirty-four  an  edition  was  printed 
at  Leipsic  and  Hamburg  in  1748,  accompanied  by  a  commen- 
tary. Of  this  Colden  could  not  read  a  word  but  the  proper 
names,  which,  however,  was  sufficiently  delightful,  because  he 
saw  his  own  in  the  glorious  company  of  those  of  Wolpius,  New- 
ton, and  Leibnitz.^  Indeed,  the  actual  translation  made  by  a 
neighbouring  Dutch  pastor  was  disappointing,  for  by  this  it 
appeared  that  the  editors  had  emphasized  the  metaphysical 
side  of  the  principles,  of  which  Colden  had  said  nothing,'  while 
the  same  point  of  view  was  taken  by  the  author  of  "Liris  Theo- 
logia  Metaphysia,"  which,  with  Colden's  name  among  others 
on  the  title-page,  was  published  in  London  about  this  time.^ 

*  Letter  from  Collinson,  March  27,  1746/7. 

'  Colden's  copy  of  a  letter  to  Franklin,  May  20,  1752. 
'  Ibid.,  October  24,  1752. 

*  Colden's  copy  of  a  letter  to  Collinson,  July  7,  1749. 


A  Colonial  Savant  13 

The  attention  he  attracted  abroad,  moreover,  reacted  on  his 
reputation  at  home.  Franklin  reported  a  revival  of  studious 
habits  in  Philadelphia,  preparatory  to  a  more  intelligent  reading 
of  his  "Explanation,"  and  Logan  acknowledged  that  he  had 
been  hasty  in  his  first  judgments.  Yet  v^hen  Dr.  Betts,  an 
Oxford  don,  wrote  to  Alexander  in  1749  to  know  when  Golden 
was  going  to  keep  the  promise  made  in  the  introduction  to  the 
"Principles,"^  and  show  their  application,  Golden  told  him 
that  his  was  the  first  word  of  recognition  that  had  reached  him 
from  England.  But  he  had  not  waited  for  this.  In  1751  a 
revised  edition  of  the  "Principles,"  with  "The  Motion  of  the 
Planets  explained  from  these,"  to  which  was  appended  a  dis- 
cussion of  fluxions,  was  pubHshed  in  London  by  Dodsley. 
Newton  had  died  before  explaining  certain  apparent  inconsist- 
encies between  his  "Principles"  and  the  motion  of  the  planets. 
That  they  were  only  apparent  has  since  been  proved.  But  in 
Golden's  time  this  had  not  been  done,  and  Golden  hoped,  in- 
stead, satisfactorily  to  explain  planetary  motion  by  his  own 
theory.  As  he  says  to  Dr.  Betts:  "What  I  am  next  going  to 
tell  you  I  am  very  sensible  with  what  danger  I  say  it  viz.  That 
Sir  Isaac  Newton's  theory  of  the  planet's  motion  is  not  perfect." 
But  this  statement  seems  almost  fatuous  when  he  goes  on  to 
say  that  in  a  hundred  other  instances  where  he  had  thought 
Newton  wrong,  he  had  found  it  his  own  misapprehension. 

The  new  edition  was  launched  with  considerable  eclat. 
Dodsley  had  cheerfully  accepted  Golden's  terms,  all  the  maga- 
zines published  extracts  and  summaries  in  successive  numbers, 
and  Franklin  prophesied  that  it  would  "make  a  great  noise." 
But  its  implied  disloyalty  to  the  great  Newton  hurt  its  popu- 
larity from  the  start.  Dodsley's  cheerfulness  was  soon  as 
diminished  as  were  his  anticipated  profits,  and  when  Leonard 
Euler,  the  great  Swiss  mathematician,  mercilessly  pulled  the 

'  The  "  Explanation,"  etc.,  was  also  spoken  of  briefly  as  the  "Principles." 


14  Cadwallader  Colden 

book  to  pieces  and  Colden  replied  to  his  attack  with  some  bitter- 
ness, he  refused  to  print  their  respective  papers.  Even  ColUnson 
begged  his  friend  to  eUminate  the  objectionable  sections;  and 
Colden  made  the  attempt,  only  to  be  surer  than  before  of  the 
truth  which  they  contained.  Moreover,  Frankhn  had  taken 
the  edge  from  Euler's  sharpness  by  tracing  it  to  Old  World 
prejudice,  to  the  evident  reluctance  of  Europeans  to  admit  the 
possibility  of  learning  anything  from  "us  Americans."^  He 
had  himself  shortly  before  affirmed  the  identity  of  lightning  and 
electricity,  and  suggested  at  the  same  time  the  means  of  pro- 
tection from  its  shocks.  This  seeming  profane  to  a  Gottingen 
professor  named  Kastner,  he  had,  in  a  manner  "unworthy  of 
a  philosopher,"  berated  him  for  presuming  to  check  "the  thunder 
of  heaven."  But  he  might  have  saved  himseK  the  trouble,  for 
Franklin's  latest  experiments  had  proved  that  the  earth  is 
electrified  positively  and  the  clouds  negatively,  so  that  it  was 
the  thunder  of  earth,  not  of  heaven,  against  which  he  had  offered 
safeguards.  Of  this  discovery  Colden  was  the  first  to  be  told, 
in  the  thought  that  it  might  be  of  use  to  him  as  well  as  a  mark 
of  esteem,  not  to  speak  of  Franklin's  own  desire  to  share  his 
little  joke  on  Kastner  with  one  he  could  trust.  For,  as  he  said 
in  his  next  letter,  "  'tis  well  we  are  not,  as  poor  Galileo  was, 
subject  to  the  Inquisition  for  philosophical  Heresy.  My  whis- 
pers against  the  orthodox  doctrine  in  private  Letters,  would  be 
dangerous,  your  writing  and  printing  would  be  highly  criminal. 
As  it  is,  you  must  expect  some  censure  but  one  Heretic  will 
surely  excuse  another."  ^ 

Still,  though  Frankhn  valued  his  own  interleaved  copy  of 
the  "Principles"  so  highly  that  he  would  not  lend  it  to  so  care- 
ful a  friend  as  James  Bowdoin,  he  was  so  far  from  believing  in 
Colden's  theories  himself  that  he  could  not,  with  the  rest  of  the 

'  Letter  from  Franklin,  April  12,  1752. 
*  Ibid.,  April  23,  1752. 


A  Colonial  Savant  15 

world,  acknowledge  a  "vis inertia^'  in  matter.  In  fact,  Golden 
had  gained  no  valuable  adherents  anywhere.  His  nephew, 
it  is  true,  had  sent  him  two  recent  philosophies  with  the  assur- 
ance that  their  authors  would  alter  them  according  to  his  sug- 
gestions, and  Mr.  Samuel  Pike,  of  Hoxton,  wrote  that  his  "Phil- 
osophia  Sacra"  had  been  inspired  by  the  "Principles."  But 
such  was  his  enthusiasm  that  even  Golden  suspected  he  was 
somewhat  of  "a  wag,"  and  though  the  arrival  of  a  copy  of  Mr. 
Pike's  creation  dispelled  this  suspicion,  it  left  his  vanity 
untouched. 

Still  not  disheartened,  he  now  revised  and  enlarged  his  "Prin- 
ciples" once  more,  adding  on  this  foundation  discussions  of 
the  phenomena  of  Hght,  of  the  elasticity  of  the  air,  of  the  co- 
hesion of  the  parts  of  water,  and  of  electricity.  This  last  sub- 
ject was  treated  by  his  son  David,  who  had  already  won  Frank- 
lin's commendation  by  his  refutation  of  the  theories  of  the  Abb^ 
NoUet.  When  his  manuscript  was  completed,  however,  Gol- 
den did  not  seek  a  publisher,  but  submitted  it  to  the  approval 
of  Dr.  Bevis,  of  London.  Years  went  by ;  Golden  became  in 
turn  president  of  the  council,  acting  head  of  the  government, 
and  lieutenant-governor;  he  moved  his  residence  from  the 
Ulster  manor-house  to  a  Flushing  country-seat;  and  still  the 
oracle  had  vouchsafed  no  answer.  Golden  could  but  think  his 
papers  despised,  though  he  found  it  no  easier  to  despise  them 
himself,  and  was  still  certain  they  would  stand  "the  strictest 
test."  But  his  new  position  had  shattered  his  almost 
reaUzed  dream  of  "otium  cum  dignitate,"  his  "amusing  specu- 
lations" were  at  an  end,  and  he  was  "obHged  to  be  perpetually 
in  company."  Moreover,  he  was  getting  to  be  an  old  man, 
and  he  wanted  to  leave  his  magnum  opus  in  more  considerate 
hands.  Hence,  on  February  25,  1762,  he  wrote  to  Robert 
Whyte,  Professor  of  Medicine  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
that  Golhnson  would  send  the  papers  to  him  on  his  indicating 


1 6  Cadwallader  C olden 

a  willingness  to  read  them/  "National  Predjudices,"  he  writes, 
"as  well  as  personal  often  prevail  in  many  points  of  philosophy. 
Perhaps  the  Principles  which  I  have  adopted  may  be  more 
favourably  received  in  Scotland  than  in  England.  You'll  par- 
don the  fondness  which  a  man  naturally  has  for  his  own  pro- 
ductions when  I  desire  of  you,  in  case  you  do  not  think  these 
papers  proper  to  appear  in  pubHc,  please  to  deposit  them  in 
the  Ubrary  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  where  I  had  my 
Education  in  the  Rudiments  of  Science,  for  I  am  persuaded 
they  will  sometime  or  other  be  found  to  contain  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  physical  knowledge,  and  to  be  of  real  use. 

"We  have  no  knowledge  of  substances  or  of  things  themselves, 
as  httle  knowledge  of  material  substances  as  of  the  Intelligent 
or  of  Spirit.  All  our  knowledge  consists  in  this  that  from  the 
effects  of  phenomena  we  discover  something  which  we  call 
substances  have  the  power  of  producing  certain  effects.  How 
they  produce  these  effects  we  in  no  manner  conceive.  Yet  all 
the  objections  to  my  principles  which  I  have  seen  arise  from  an 
expectation  that  I  should  explain  in  what  manner  the  primary 
powers  produce  their  effect." 

Of  the  fate  of  the  papers,  beyond  the  fact  that  Dr.  Whyte 
advised  against  their  immediate  pubHcation  with  such  tact  as 
to  leave  Golden 's  vanity  unwounded,  nothing  is  known.  Their 
truth  has  probably  never  since  been  tested,  and  whether  they 
are  mouldering  in  a  dusty  corner  of  the  hbraryorwere  long  since 
destroyed  in  some  energetic  cleaning,  probably  no  one  will  ever 
take  the  trouble  to  find  out.  But  the  old  edition  long  continued 
to  be  read,  and  when  Buffon  lost  his  copy  in  1788,  he  sent  to 
Thomas  Jefferson  for  another,  who,  though  obhged  in  turn  to 
call  on  Francis  Hopkinson  for  assistance,  succeeded  in  graci- 
fying  his  request. 

But  Golden  was  not  a  man  of  one  idea  even  in  physics.     Of 

» The  Colden  Letter  Books,  Vol.  I. 


A  Colonial  Savant  17 

this  proof  may  be  found  in  his  pamphlets,  "  On  the  Properties 
of  Light,"  "An  Inquiry  into  the  Causes  of  Vital  Motion," 
"The  Causes  of  Metal  Medley  swimming  in  Water,"  and  in 
his  "Letter  to  Lord  Macklesfield."  Indeed,  he  was  so  inter- 
ested in  his  "Inquiry,"  that  at  seventy-seven, too  busy  to  correct 
the  whole  treatise,  he  wrote  a  summary  thereof  to  Whyte  in 
order  that  some  one  might  carry  on  the  idea  after  his  death. 
Unquenchably  ambitious,  it  was  well  that  an  equally  enduring 
hopefulness  kept  his  old  age  unembittered  by  want  of  success 
where  success  was  most  desired. 

The  reception  of  his  philosophical  theories,  moreover,  had  not 
been  his  only  disappointment.  As  surveyor-general  he  had  been 
early  impressed  with  the  ignorance  of  his  race  as  to  the  geography 
of  its  American  possessions.  While  France  had  suppHed  her 
colonial  officials  with  instruments  of  the  latest  construction  for 
the  observations  necessary  to  map-making,  England  had  stood 
passively  by,  and  then  accepted  the  results.  How  shamefully 
doctored  these  were,  Colden  had  himself  shown,  but  he  had 
Kttle  hope  of  awakening  the  British  government,  and  instead 
bent  his  energies  to  the  constnlction  of  simpler  and  more  port- 
able instruments,  cheap  enough  to  be  bought  by  the  colonists 
themselves.  But  he  failed  repeatedly.  After  consultation  with 
Alexander,  who  was  experimenting  to  the  same  end,  he  would 
send  his  invention  to  Collinson  for  submission  to  experts,  only 
to  hear  that  his  idea  had  been  proved  defective  a  hundred  years 
before,  or  that  he  had  overlooked  some  obvious  difficulty. 

Again,  having  experienced  the  author's  difficulty  of  forcast- 
ing  the  demand  for  his  works,  he  sought  a  remedy  in  a  new 
method  of  printing.  He  proposed,  instead  of  the  ordinary 
movable  types,  the  use  of  metal  sheets,  resembUng  pages  of 
type,  or,  in  other  words,  an  inverted  leaden  facsimile  of  the  book 
to  be  printed.  This,  he  acknowledged,  would  make  the  first 
expense  heavy,  but  the  first  would  be  approximately  the  only 


1 8  Cadwallader  C olden 

outlay,  as  successive  imprints  would  be  at  a  nominal  cost,  as 
in  engraving.  By  this  method  additions  and  corrections  could 
be  easily  made,  the  supply  would  conform  exactly  to  the  demand, 
and  in  the  case  of  an  unsuccessful  book,  there  would  be  no  loss 
in  paper  and  the  metal  could  be  used  again.  Moreover,  the 
number  of  unsuccessful  books  would  be  reduced  and  author- 
ship would  not  be  hghtly  assumed.  As  in  the  matter  of  the 
quadrants  just  referred  to,  however,  he  had  no  such  confidence 
in  his  scheme  as  the  "Principles"  had  inspired.  He  was  not 
sure  that  it  was  practicable,  and  after  a  doubtful  letter  from 
FrankUn,  to  whom  he  had  sent  it,  he  seems  to  have  made  no 
further  attempt  to  exploit  it.  But  his  method  was  entirely 
practicable,  for  it  was  what  is  now  known  as  stereotyping,  the 
invention  of  which  is  credited  to  William  Ged,  an  Edinburgh 
printer,  though  the  honour  has  been  claimed  for  a  Dutchman 
named  Von  der  Rey  and  others.  Ged  discovered  the  process 
about  1725,  ten  years  after  Golden  finally  left  Scotland,  but  he 
did  not  apply  it  with  success  until  1739,  about  four  years  before 
Golden  sent  his  scheme  to  Franklin.  Whether  Golden  had 
ever  heard  of  Ged  or  Von  der  Rey  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Years 
after  his  death,  however,  his  scheme  was  printed  in  an  American 
scientific  magazine,  and  the  editors  state  it  to  be  the  current 
opinion  that  stereotyping  was  invented  by  a  Mr.  Herhan,  who 
was  at  that  time  practising  it  in  Paris  under  letters  patent  from 
Napoleon.  Moreover,  they  add  that  it  is  their  belief  that 
Herhan  had  made  use  of  Golden's  own  idea,  having  found  it 
among  the  papers  of  his  old  employer,  to  whom  Franklin  had 
probably  communicated  it.^  But  Golden's  share  in  the  matter 
apparently  has   not   survived  the   shock  of  investigation,   or 

*  American  Medical  and  Philosophical  Register,  181 1,  pp.  439-450.  "Origi- 
nal paper  on  a  new  method  of  printing  discovered  by  him  (Cadwallader  Col- 
den)  with  an  original  letter  from  Dr.  Franklin  and  some  accounts  of  stereotyping 
as  now  practised  in  Europe,  etc.  by  the  editors." 


A  Colonial  Savant  19 

rather,  Herhan  has  himself  been  forgotten.  So,  once  again, 
Colden  was  either  his  own  dupe,  mistaking  another's  inspira- 
tion for  his  own,  or  the  unfortunate  man  last  to  pick  up  a 
sporadic  idea. 

About  this  time,  however,  he  achieved  a  real  success.  Al- 
ways interested  in  botany,  he  had  felt  himself  too  ignorant  for 
effective  work  until,  nearly  thirty  years  after  his  removal  to  the 
colonies,  he  fell  in  with  a  volume  of  Linnaeus.  Charmed  with 
his  method,  he  grasped  it  with  such  ease  that  he  was  soon  able 
to  send  over  the  sea  the  flora  to  which  he  had  access,  analyzed 
and  classified  according  to  its  principles.  The  Swedish  botanist 
was  astonished  and  dehghted  at  such  quickness  of  apprehension, 
and  a  pleasant  exchange  of  books  and  letters  ensued.  But  there 
were  other  things  more  pleasant  still.  Thus,  "Acta  Upsal- 
ensia"  for  1743  contains:  "  Plantae  Coldenghamias  in  Provincia 
Novo  Eboraceni  spontanae  crescentes  quae  ad  me  methodum 
Linnsei  sexulem  observavit  Cadwallader  Colden";^  Linnaeus 
named  a  newly  discovered  genus  of  plants  Coldenia ;  ^  Colden 's 
acquaintance  was  sought  by  well-known  botanists;  and  the 
inevitable  request  for  the  story  of  his  life,  for  publication  in  a 
"Biographica  Botanicorum,"  arrived  promptly.^ 

About  this  time,  also,  Colden  spent  a  winter's  leisure  in  re- 
vising his  Indian  history,  writing  a  new  introduction  and  put- 
ting in  order  material  which  he  had  collected  years  before, 
bringing  it  down  to  the  peace  of  Ryswick.  He  had  taken  up 
this  work  unexpectedly  to  himself  and  at  the  urgent  request 
of  Collinson,  who  assured  him  that  the  London  publishers 
would  be  only  too  glad  to  get  hold  of  it.  But  Collinson  was  too 
sanguine,  and  the  manuscript  remained  in  his  possession  five 

•  From  Joh.  Fred.  Gronovius,  August  6,  1744. 

*  Letter  from  Franklin,  October  16,  1746;  letter  from  Collinson,  November 

S>  1747- 

'  From  Peter  Kalm,  January  4,  1750. 


20  Cddwallader  Colden 

years  before  he  found  a  publisher  who  was  ready  to  make  satis- 
factory terms.  Indeed,  he  managed  the  whole  thing  with  in- 
diflferent  success,  for  being  out  of  town  when  the  edition  at 
length  went  to  the  printer,  he  failed  to  prevent  the  insertion  of 
the  charters  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  substitution  of  a  dedi- 
cation to  Oglethorpe,  besides  many  minor  changes.  Colden 
was  disgusted,  though  not  at  ColUnson,  while  Thomas  Osborne 
the  publisher,  soon  had  his  own  complaints.  For,  although 
the  value  of  the  edition  was  enhanced  by  the  text  of  numerous 
Indian  treaties,  and  by  the  addition  of  Colden's  famous  pam- 
phlet on  the  fur  trade,  it  proved  a  disappointment  to  him  also. 
Pronounced  by  Franklin  to  be  a  "well- wrote,  entertaining  and 
instructive  piece,"  and  "received  in  the  world  with  great  repu- 
tation," ^  the  demand  for  it  dropped  suddenly  and  soon.  Os- 
borne was  obhged  almost  to  give  it  away,  vowing  the  while  that 
he  would  never  again  publish  save  for  ready  money ;  and  when 
Colden  asked  what  encouragement  he  could  give  him  to  con- 
tinue his  narrative,  he  replied  that  he  could  give  him  none 
whatever.  His  frankness  proved  crushing  to  Colden's  revived 
interest,  and  he  never  again  made  a  formal  contribution  to  his- 
tory. Some  years  later,  however,  on  reading  William  Smith's 
newly  published  history,  he  became  so  exasperated,  his  preju- 
dices, personal  and  poUtical,  were  so  outraged,  that  he  deter- 
mined to  provide  the  historian  of  the  future  with  a  critical  guide 
to  its  pages.  And  this  he  did  in  a  series  of  letters  to  his  son, 
written  at  Coldengham  in  the  winter  of  1759-60.  Their  dis- 
cussion, however,  belongs  more  properly  to  the  consideration 
of  his  poUtical  career. 

Naturally  enough,  Colden  was  much  interested  in  education, 
and  his  views  on  the  subject  are  surprisingly  progressive. 
Narrow  and  inflexible  though  he  was  in  his  political  convic- 
tions, in  social,  intellectual,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  reUgious 

'  From  Franklin,  January  27,  1747. 


A  Colonial  Savant  21 

matters,  his  ability  to  see  the  other  side  of  the  question  was 
considerable.  He  could,  to  be  sure,  see  no  virtue  under  what 
seemed  to  him  the  self-complacency  of  those  spiritual  radicals, 
the  Independents,  as  he  heard,  on  the  one  hand,  their  lofty  pre- 
tensions, and  saw,  on  the  other,  the  mortal  errors  of  their  lives. 
But  seekers  after  truth  of  all  shades  of  beUef  had  the  sympathy 
of  this  Scotch  dominie's  son,  while  a  strongly  developed  sense 
of  proportion  kept  him  from  provinciaUsm  in  his  habits  of  thought 
and  Ufe.  His  aunt,  indeed,  regarded  his  adaptability  with 
horror,  and  spoke  her  mind  with  Quaker  bluntness,  whereupon 
Golden  explained  his  position  in  a  letter  so  characteristic  of 
his  m.ost  attractive  side  that  it  is  here  given  in  full. 

"Madam: 
"  I  came  from  home  last  Friday  morning  and  left  my  wife  and 
children  in  the  country  and  in  good  health  and  found  Sandy 
and  Betty  in  good  health  in  this  place.  My  wife  wrote  to  you 
from  the  Country  but  we  have  not  heard  from  you  since  you 
wrote  to  me  when  I  was  last  in  this  place.  I  was  extremely 
concerned  to  find  that  you  was  not  pleased  with  our  sending 
the  children  to  town.  We  had  no  design  beside  giving  them 
some  Education  that  they  cannot  have  in  the  country  and  to 
rub  off  some  of  the  country  awkwardness  which  is  a  great  dis-' 
advantage  to  young  people  that  expect  some  time  to  be  in  Com- 
pany and  our  sending  them  to  the  dancing  school  was  only  in 
compliance  with  the  customs  of  the  Country  which  we  cannot 
bring  to  our  own  humours  and  with  which  we  must  comply 
if  we  live  in  the  Country  where  such  manners  are  used.  They 
are  both  now  of  those  years  as  they  must  be  in  Company  unless 
they  were  to  be  moaped  up  in  the  woods  and  give  up  all  hopes  of 
advancing  themselves  in  the  world.  I  never  had  the  least 
thoughts  of  making  a  priest  of  Sandy  but  his  learning  Latin 
with  the  minister  last  winter  will  be  of  use  if  he  apply  himself 


22  Cadwallader  C olden 

either  to  Law  or  Physick  and,  indeed,  in  almost  all  affairs  or 
Business  of  life  ...  It  gives  us  a  great  deal  of  concern  that  we 
can  be  of  no  use  to  you  under  the  infirmities  of  old  age  by  reason 
of  our  distance  from  you.  I  thought  that  it  would  have  given 
you  some  satisfaction  to  have  seen  me  and  Sandy  and  for  that 
reason  I  was  resolv'd  to  have  carried  him  with  me  this  fall  to 
pay  our  Duty  to  you  but  you  have  forbid  it  in  such  a  manner 
that  I  shall  not  attempt  it  without  your  leave.  I  hope  none  of 
us  have  done  anything  to  disoblige  you.  It  would  give  me  the 
greatest  grief  if  you  entertained  the  least  thought  of  any  want 
of  Duty  especially  if  you  should  think  so  of  me  for  you  must  at 
the  same  time  think  me  the  most  ungrateful  man  to  the  kindest 
relation.  I  must  again  beg  of  you  to  write  to  me  that  I  may 
not  have  any  reason  to  suspect  that  your  love  to  me  is  lessened 
for  I  really  cannot  bear  the  thoughts  of  its.  Sandy  and  Betty 
pray  that  you  will  accept  of  their  Duty  to  you.  All  my  friends 
give  me  a  good  account  of  their  Behaviour  and  Betty  is  taken 
much  notice  of  by  the  best  families  in  the  town. 
"  I  am  Madam  Yr.  most  dutiful  nephew 

"  Cadwallader  Golden. 
"New  York,  October  23rd,  1734." 

It  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  general  belief  that  the  double  func- 
tion of  education,  on  the  one  hand  to  fit  man  for  service  as  citi- 
zen and  as  patriot,  and  on  the  other  to  increase  his  own  power 
of  enjoyment  has  been  but  lately  perceived,  and  that  our  fore- 
fathers founded  universities  for  the  purpose  of  turning  out  mere 
scholars  or  polishing  off  the  man  of  leisure.  But  the  modern 
creed  is  professed  in  so  many  words,  in  a  letter  of  Colden's 
acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  prospectus  of  the  new  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania.  Moreover,  after  congratulating  its  pro- 
moters for  including  an  agricultural  department  in  their  scheme, 
he  proceeds  to  give  some  interesting  suggestions.    It  was  his 


A  Colonial  Savant  23 

opinion  that  the  beauty  and  strength  of  the  English  tongue 
should  be  particularly  emphasized  by  instructors,  and  that  no 
other  language  should  be  required  for  entrance,  but  that  Latin 
and  Greek  should  be  included  in  the  courses  of  law,  theology, 
and  science,  while  prospective  merchants  should  study  French. 
But  he  wrote  chiefly  to  urge  the  necessity  of  symmetrical  devel- 
opment. Knowledge  was  good,  yet  to  be  effective  it  must  be 
fortified  by  character,  ease  of  manner,  dignity  of  bearing.  There- 
fore, professors  and  masters  should  be  chosen  with  reference  to 
their  hearts  as  well  as  their  heads,  the  importance  of  dancing, 
oratory,  and  theatricals  should  be  reahzed,  and  —  antique 
touch  —  due  attention  should  be  given  to  precedence.^ 

Golden,  moreover,  had  his  theories  on  the  education  of  younger 
people,  and  when  gay  Betty  Golden  had  married  Peter  Delancey 
and  become  a  thoughtful  matron,  oppressed  by  anxiety  for  the 
present  and  eternal  welfare  of  a  lot  of  Uvely  children,  it  was  to 
her  father  that  she  turned  for  guidance.  "The  Economy  of 
Human  Life"  and  "Dialogues  on  Education,"  though  she 
bought  and  studied  them  when  advised  to,  could  not  satisfy 
her  as  did  the  suggestions  of  his  experience.  These  she  strug- 
gled to  carry  out  hterally,  and  when  it  proved  impossible  to 
send  the  boys  away  from  home,  she  set  herself  to  accomplish 
the  alternative,  the  maintenance  of  a  serene  mind  and  the 
transformation  of  their  lessons  from  drudgery  into  pleasure. 
And  she  undertook  this,  though  she  remembered  that  the  com- 
bined efforts  of  their  father,  their  tutor,  and  herself  had  been  re- 
quired to  make  her  sons  study  at  all,  and  feared  that  the  intro- 
duction of  pleasure  into  the  equation  would  eliminate  the  little 
application  that  was  theirs.^ 

According  to  his  lights,  also.  Golden  had  concern  for  the 

*  Written  about  November  16,  1740. 

*  Colden's  copy  of  a  letter  to  Elizabeth  Delancey,  June  17,  1752;  Elizabeth 
Delancey  to  her  father,  August  14,  1753;  ibid.,  February  20,  1754. 


24  Cadwallader  Colden 

higher  education  of  women.  When  urging  ColHnson  at  one 
time  to  catalogue  the  flora  of  Great  Britain,  he  suggests  the  use 
of  the  Enghsh  language,  one  of  his  reasons  being  that  the  book 
would  thus  be  thrown  open  to  women,  who,  he  thinks,  are  espe- 
cially adapted  to  the  study  of  botany  because  of  their  curiosity, 
quickness,  and  accuracy.  On  another  occasion,  when  sending 
for  certain  books  on  the  same  science,  and  containing  colored 
plates,  to  be  given  to  his  daughter  Jane,  he  says  that  botany 
seems  to  him  so  preferable  to  the  usual  feminine  pastimes  that 
he  wants  his  daughter's  interest  encouraged  in  every  possible 
way.  Therefore,  as  she  cannot  have  botanical  gardens,  she 
must  have  the  next  best  thing.  But  it  is  only  necessary  to  con- 
sider the  confidence  he  reposed  in  the  sense  and  judgment  of 
his  wife,  whose  poUtical  knowledge  he  made  equal  to  his  own, 
to  know  that  he  had  a  dormant  behef  in  the  capacity  of  woman 
to  do  what  she  would,  which  only  needed  to  be  developed  by 
circumstances. 

Particularly  interesting  is  Colden's  endeavour  to  use  his  own 
knowledge  for  general  pubUc  enlightenment.  In  one  way  or 
another  he  was  always  doing  this,  but  a  notable  instance  occurred 
during  the  fever  epidemic  of  1741-42.  Colden  and  others 
felt  that  the  filthy  condition  of  the  slips,  the  existence  of  tar 
pits  within  the  city  Umits,  and  the  fact  that  the  cellars  of  many 
houses  were  filled  with  water,  while  many  other  houses  had  no 
cellars  at  all,  had  had  much  to  do  with  the  outbreak,  and  Colden, 
at  least,  determined  to  do  something  about  it.  So  he  pubHshed 
an  article  in  which  he  showed  by  certain  historical  examples  that 
epidemics  always  sprang  from,  or  were  nurtured  by,  the  very 
sanitary  conditions  which  then  surrounded  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city.  But  he  felt  that  their  general  improvement  could  not 
be  brought  about  by  an  appeal  to  the  public  spirit,  personal 
pride,  and  self-interest  of  the  individual  citizens,  and  urged  the 
corporation  to  take  up  the  matter,  to  put  the  city  in  order,  and 


A  Colonial  Savant  25 

promise  to  pay  damages  to  all  who  suffered  from  an  unhealthy 
environment.  Thanks  to  an  approaching  election,  his  effort 
was  most  successful.  The  city  fathers  put  in  force  a  series  of 
sanitary  ordinances  whose  existence  had  been  forgotten  and 
made  and  enforced  still  others,  so  that  by  the  time  the  inevitable 
reaction  overtook  their  virtue,  much  permanent  good  had  been 
done.  The  cordial  expression  of  thanks  which  was  voted  to 
Golden  by  the  city  was  well  deserved. 

But  the  tale  of  his  accompHshments  is  not  quite  told.  He  was 
particularly  interested  in  the  alleviation  of  cancer,  and,  besides 
a  wide  correspondence  on  the  subject,  he  wrote  two  papers  on 
its  treatment  and  cure.  One  of  these,  in  fact,  which  discussed 
the  efficacy  of  pokeweed,  or  the  great  water  dock,  first  brought 
him  to  the  notice  of  Linnaeus.  Another  paper  on  an  epidemic 
sore  throat  which  swept  through  New  England  about  the  middle 
of  the  century,^  and  a  fourth  on  the  medicinal  properties  of  tar 
water,  gained  him  much  local  reputation.  In  the  sphere  of 
moral  and  mental  philosophy,  he  treated  "The  Operation  of 
Intellect  in  Animals"  with  much  originality,  and  of  his  "Prin- 
ciples of  Morality"  Samuel  Johnson  said:  "Your  beautiful 
little  draught .  .  .  has  been  read  three  times  with  increasing 
pleasure.  It  is  an  easy,  gradual,  and  natural  progress  from 
physics  to  metaphysics  and  thence  to  morality."  ^  Moreover, 
in  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  his  ovm  theory  of  the 
relations  of  mind  and  matter  as  he  states  it  in  his  letter  to  Dr. 
Whyte:  "From  the  evident  effects  of  wisdom  and  from  a  chain 
of  effects  all  tending  to  the  same  purpose  or  end  I  conclude  that 
an  intelligent  being  exists,  but  I  cannot  allow  that  Intelligence 
can  give  motion  or  resist  motion,  for  in  that  case  I  must  with 
Dr.  Berkeley  deny  that  any  other  being  exists,  for  on  such  sup- 

*  Addressed  first  to  Dr.  Fothergill  in  1753  and  published  in  1755;  repub- 
lished in  Carey's  American  Museum. 
2  April  IS,  1747. 


26  Cadwallader  C olden 

position  they  become  useless.  I  conceive  that  Intelligence  may 
give  a  certain  direction  when  the  direction  of  the  action  of  these 
powers  is  determined  by  their  power.  .  .  .  The  IntelHgent  power 
never  opposes  the  material  or  other  powers,  but  the  material  are 
necessary  to  the  Intelligent  in  producing  a  certain  effect  for  a 
certain  purpose."  ^ 

An  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Philosophy"  for  one  of  the 
naughty  Delancey  boys,  a  set  of  astronomical  tables  compiled 
from  his  own  observations,  and  a  translation  of  Cicero's  letters 
at  length  completes  the  list  of  Colden's  strictly  non-political 
writings.  He  did  not,  indeed,  bury  his  talents,  and  if  he  made 
the  mistake  of  seeing  them  double  and  so  diminishing  his  force 
at  any  one  point,  he  gave  to  those  who  understood,  an  example 
of  high  ambition  and  ceaseless  industry,  which  was  an  achieve- 
ment in  itself.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  his  faculties  never 
failed  him,  and  that  he  died  after  a  year  of  retirement  spent 
in  cheerful  intercourse  with  his  family  and  friends,  and  only 
clouded  by  the  beginnings  of  that  Revolution  whose  shadow 
he  had  seen  so  long  before. 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  463-465. 


A  COLONIAL  SURVEYOR  GENERAL 

When  the  young  Scotch  physician,  Cadwallader  Colden, 
accepted  the  invitation  of  Governor  Hunter  to  settle  in  New 
York,  he  did  so  on  the  promise  of  being  the  next  surveyor 
general,  the  offices  of  weigh  master  and  master  in  Chancery  in 
which  he  was  at  once  installed  being  of  secondary  importance. 
In  the  summer  of  17 19,  however.  Hunter  went  home  on  leave 
of  absence  with  many  assurances  of  a  speedy  return,  and  on 
his  departure  the  administration  devolved  on  the  oldest  council- 
lor in  point  of  service,  Colonel  Peter  Schuyler.  Schuyler  and 
Hunter  had  not  been  friendly,  and,  moreover,  Schuyler  was 
intimately  associated  with  one  of  Hunter's  strongest  opponents, 
Adolph  Phillipse.  Naturally  enough,  then,  in  the  expectation 
of  Hunter's  return  or  the  arrival  of  a  new  governor  in  whose 
selection  it  was  known  that  Hunter  would  be  influential,  it 
was  determined  to  make  a  full  and  immediate  use  of  the  power 
of  patronage  attached  to  the  office  of  commander-in-chief.  At 
this  point  Augustine  Graham,  who  had  actually  been  surveyor 
general,  died,  and  in  disregard  of  Hunter's  promises  Captain 
Allane  Jarratt  was  appointed  his  successor.  But  Colden  had  a 
powerful  friend  at  court.  The  announcement  of  this  and 
other  appointments  left  New  York  in  October,  17 19,  and  by 
the  middle  of  April,  1720,  Schuyler  received  orders  to  make  no 
more  changes  and  to  appoint  Colden  in  Jarratt's  place.  He 
could  but  obey,  and  Colden  commenced  his  important  and 
difficult  task. 

He  found  the  affairs  of  the  office  in  a  state  of  almost  hopeless 

27 


28  Cadwallader  Colden 

confusion.^  James  II,  when  Duke  of  York  and  proprietor  of 
the  province,  had  empowered  his  governors  to  grant  his  lands, 
and  they  had,  on  the  whole,  not  abused  their  trusts.  The 
grants  of  Nicolls  and  Lovelace,  for  instance,  were  mostly  small, 
that  is,  under  two  hundred  acres,  but  a  previous  survey  was 
not  required  and  the  boundaries  were  indefinite.  The  grants 
stipulated  variously  for  the  usual  rent,  or  for  the  usual  rent 
and  such  services  as  the  governor  or  his  deputies  might  require, 
or,  finally,  for  such  rent  as  the  governors  might  establish,  or  such 
rent  as  would  later  be  determined  by  the  laws  of  the  colony. 
Sometimes  the  rent  was  mentioned,  but  it  was  not  in  proportion 
to  the  quantity  of  land,  and,  while  occasionally  considerable, 
was  often  a  mere  trifle.  Improvement  within  a  certain  time  was 
compulsory,  and  timber  was  reserved  for  the  public.  Andros, 
the  third  provincial  governor,  kept  along  the  safe  lines  laid  down 
by  his  predecessors.  In  addition,  his  grants  named  a  quit- 
rent,  which  was  usually  one  bushel  of  winter  wheat  for  land 
enough  for  one  family,  this  being  one  hundred,  eighty,  or  fifty 
acres,  according  to  the  qualities  of  the  soil.  The  bounds  were 
generally  clear,  as  there  were  few  instances  of  grants  without 
a  previous  survey,  and  the  tracts  were  still  small.  Among  the 
unsurveyed  patents,  however,  Colden  found  one  remarkable 
example  of  the  necessity  of  carefully  recorded  bounds.  Andros 
had  granted  two  men  of  Albany  a  tract  of  two  hundred  acres, 
at  half  a  bushel  of  wheat  rent;  in  Colden's  time  their  heirs 
claimed  more  than  sixty  thousand  acres.  But  the  rents  of  all 
these  patents  were  decided  to  have  lapsed  because  of  the  change 
to  a  representative  government;  so  that  during  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century  there  were  more  than  a  thousand  hold- 
ings that  paid  nothing  at  all. 

'  Colden's  Memorial  to  Cosby,  O'Callaghan's  Documentary  History  of  New 
York,  I,  247,  and  the  Board  of  Trade's  Representation,  New  York  Colonial 
Documents,  VI,  650. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  20 

New  York  now  became  a  royal  province,  and  the  governors 
of  such  provinces  could  always  grant  lands  under  the  reserva- 
tion of  certain  quit-rents.  Accordingly,  Dongan,  the  first 
royal  governor,  was  empowered  to  grant  lands  "under  the 
reservation  of  such  moderate  quit-rents,  services,  and  acknowl- 
edgments as  he  and  his  Council  might  think  proper."  The 
grants  were  first  to  be  surveyed  by  the  public  surveyor,  issued 
under  the  seal  of  New  York,  and  recorded.  The  quit-rents 
were  generally  proportional  to  the  quantity  of  land,  and  averaged 
one  bushel  of  wheat  to  a  hundred  acres,  their  slight  variation 
probably  being  due  to  differences  of  soil  and  situation.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  land  grants  which  date  from  Dongan's 
time  were  never  actually  surveyed  but  merely  estimated  and 
described,  and  these  general  descriptions  afforded  an  oppor- 
tunity for  fraud  on  a  large  scale.  Tracts  were  bounded  by 
certain  turnings  of  certain  branches  of  certain  kills  or  rivers; 
they  extended  to  the  foot  of  certain  hills;  they  stretched  from 
one  notched  tree  to  another  without  measuring  the  distance 
between.  Some  patents  granted  a  certain  piece  of  "flatts" 
or  lowland,  with  a  certain  number  of  acres  adjoining,  and  men- 
tioned no  bounds  whatever;  others,  a  certain  number  of  acres 
of  profitable  land,  besides  waste  and  woodland,  at  a  time  when 
the  whole  face  of  unappropriated  country  was  covered  with 
woods,  some  of  the  grantees,  moreover,  claiming  about  this 
time  ten,  twenty,  or  even  a  hundred  times  as  many  acres  as  had 
been  originally  named.  Dongan,  also,  under  what  were  stated 
to  be  simple  confirmations,  extended  the  manors  of  Phillipse, 
Livingston,  and  Van  Cortlandt.  However,  his  wise  public 
spirit  and  the  general  blamelessness  of  his  administration  have 
caused  these  violations  of  his  instructions  to  be  ascribed  to 
carelessness  or  an  undervaluation  of  their  importance,  so  that 
to  his  successor.  Colonel  Benjamin  Fletcher,  belongs  the  repu- 
tation of  being  the  first  governor  to  exploit  the  crown  lands 


3©  Cadwallader  Colden 

for  his  own  benefit.  He  seemed,  indeed,  on  the  point  of  com- 
pleting the  division  of  the  province  among  his  supporters  when 
he  was  superseded  by  the  Earl  of  Bellomont.  The  earl  was  a 
Leislerian,  whereas  his  predecessor  had  led  the  opposing  party, 
and  it  was  his  endeavour  to  bring  everything  to  Fletcher's  dis- 
credit to  light.  His  description  of  the  state  of  the  crown  lands 
and  the  crown  surveyor's  report  resulted  in  a  command  from 
the  home  government  that  he  use  every  means  in  his  power  to 
annul  certain  grants,  and  that  in  the  future  he  demand 
a  quit-rent  of  2S.  6d.  per  hundred  acres,  exacting 
effectual  cultivation  within  three  years  on  pain  of  forfeiture. 
Accordingly,  he  induced  the  assembly  to  pass  an  act  vacating 
the  grants  of  Godfrey  Dellius  and  others,  of  Colonel  Peter 
Schuyler  and  Harme  Gansevoort,  of  Colonel  Caleb  Heathcote, 
of  Captain  John  Evans,  and  of  Colonel  Nicholas  Bayard.  This 
act,  as  was  customary,  he  sent  home  for  confirmation;  but  as 
months  and  years  went  by  without  a  word  in  its  regard,  the 
assembly  at  length  took  matters  into  their  own  hands  and 
repealed  it. 

Meanwhile,  Bellomont  had  died,  and  the  lieutenant-governor, 
John  Nanfan,  was  in  command.  Kjiowing  that  his  period  of 
power  would  probably  be  brief,  he  determined  to  improve  it 
to  the  utmost  and,  among  other  concessions,  promised  away  his 
master's  lands  with  hearty  good-will.  But  the  steps  necessary 
to  secure  his  promises  had  hardly  been  begun  when  word  came 
that  Lord  Combury  was  coming  out  as  governor.  He  and 
Nanfan  belonged  to  opposing  parties,  and  a  mad  rush  ensued 
to  get  the  patents  completed  before  his  arrival.  The  loosest 
descriptions  were  made  to  answer,  and  the  custom  of  using  the 
Indian  words  for  natural  objects  in  naming  the  bounds  was 
instituted.  In  this  way  the  Indians  innocently  helped  along 
many  a  fraud,  as  the  grantees  used  their  common  names  for 
tree,  hill,  river,  as  the  proper  names  of  a  particular  tree,  hill, 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  31 

river,  the  confusion  being  increased  by  the  Indian  habit  of  call- 
ing different  parts  of  a  river  by  different  names.  Even  before 
this  it  had  become  usual  to  grant  a  tract  by  its  Indian  name 
with  no  further  description,  though,  as  the  Indians  were  not 
surveyors,  this  meant  nothing  at  all.  And  again,  lands,  which 
did  boast  bounds,  were  frequently  described  as  bounded  by  a 
certain  Indian's  lands,  whereas  it  was  well  known  that  the 
Indians  were  never  landowners  in  their  individual  capacity. 
As  might  have  been  expected.  Lord  Combury  used  his  privi- 
leges in  proportion  to  his  needs.  It  was  believed  that  he  opened 
negotiations  with  two  gentlemen  for  a  grant  of  the  whole  province, 
but  they  wisely  decided  that  the  resulting  hostility  would  be 
unendurable.  He,  however,  did  his  best  without  them.  To  one 
set  of  patentees  he  granted  the  Indian  tract  Wawayanda,^  in 
Orange  County  near  the  Jersey  line,  together  with  some  unnamed 
parcels  of  land.  Blanks  were  left  for  the  figures,  but  it  would 
have  been  natural  to  suppose  that  Wawayanda  was  the  most  valu- 
able and  largest  division  of  the  patent,  whereas  the  reverse  was 
the  case.  To  another  group  he  granted  the  Great  Minnisink 
patent,  in  Delaware  County,  the  bounds  of  which  were  described 
as  beginning  at  the  Indian  hunting-house,  when  there  were  prob- 
ably between  two  and  three  hundred  such  houses  in  the  claim. 
The  patent  to  Johannis  Hardenburg  and  company,  lying  prin- 
cipally in  Ulster  County,  started  from  the  same  indefinite  hunt- 
ing-house ;  while  still  another  grant  to  some  Albany  Dutchmen 
was  described  as  terminating  one  mile  beyond  where  the  fence 
stood.  From  this  period,  also,  date  the  long-contested  patents 
of  Kayaderosseres,  in  the  Mohawk  Valley,^  Westemhook,^  and 
Wagachemek.*     Great  as  the  confusion  was,  it  was  made  still 

'  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  818,  839. 

'  This  patent  dated  from  November,  1708.     See  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  851. 
^  On  the  Canadian  line. 

*  Waghaghkemick,  in  Orange  County,  granted  to  Thomas  Swartwout  and 
others  in  1697.     See  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  927. 


32  Cadwallader  Colden 

greater  toward  the  close  of  Combury's  administration  by  the 
tardy  action  of  the  home  government,  for  then  word  came  that 
Bellomont's  vacating  act  had  been  confirmed  and  its  repeal  dis- 
allowed. The  matter  at  last  had  excited  the  attention  it  de- 
served, and  by  the  instructions  to  Sir  Francis  Lovelace,  in  1 708, 
the  despoiled  proprietors  were  to  be  allowed  grants  not  exceed- 
ing two  thousand  acres  for  a  quit-rent;  three  acres  in  every 
fifty  were  to  be  cultivated ;  and  the  land  was  to  be  laid  out  by 
the  governor  or  the  commander-in-chief,  the  collector  of  customs, 
the  secretary,  and  the  surveyor  general,  or  any  three  of  them, 
the  surveyor  general  always  being  one.  These  were  to  propor- 
tion good  lands  to  bad,  to  lay  out  the  patents  at  right  angles  to 
the  waterways,  and  to  reserve  the  woods  for  naval  stores,  all 
trees  of  a  certain  size  being  destined  for  the  royal  navy. 

During  the  administrations  of  Hunter  and  Schuyler,  operations 
in  land  had  been  chiefly  confined  to  the  revision  of  the  resumed 
patents,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres,  for  instance, 
of  Evans's  patent,  lying  in  Orange  and  Ulster  counties,  having 
been  petitioned  for  between  May  14,  17CX),  and  the  date  of  Col- 
den's  appointment.  Schuyler,  however,  and  Schuyler's  deputies 
had  paid  so  little  attention  to  the  instructions  that  Colden's  de- 
termination to  enforce  their  strict  observance  found  public 
opinion  entirely  unprepared  for  such  a  course.  Moreover,  he 
was  himself  ignorant  as  to  the  exact  functions  of  the  council  in 
the  distribution,  and  under  the  circumstances  he  was  unable  to 
get  exact  information  from  the  commission  and  instructions. 
The  matter  was  also  affected  by  the  political  situation,  and  he 
was  strongly  urged,  on  the  one  hand,  to  yield  whenever  consistent 
with  his  duty,  and,  on  the  other,  to  delay  all  grants  to  the  op- 
position in  order  that  the  governor  might  be  left  with  some 
weapons  to  force  their  compliance.^ 

Colden's  first   surveying   experiences  were  in   the  partially 

'  Letter  from  Lewis  Morris,  July  23,  1720. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  33 

cleared,  but  still  wild  and  primitive,  counties  of  Orange  and 
Ulster,  where  was  situated,  as  has  been  said,  the  famous  Evans's 
patent,  of  which  Golden  himself  had  obtained  a  grant  of  3000 
acres,  shortly  after  coming  to  New  York.  Of  this  patent  he 
had  before  the  close  of  the  year  laid  out  18,960  acres,  beside 
14,516  acres  in  the  surrounding  region/  He  had  also  defined 
his  position  in  three  test  cases:  he  had  refused  to  obey  an 
incorrect  warrant  of  survey,  in  which  refusal  he  had  been 
upheld  on  the  petition  of  the  would-be  patentee;  he  had  me- 
morialized the  council  on  another  deficient  warrant;  and  he 
had  entered  a  caveat  against  the  confirmation  of  1260  acres 
to  Joseph  Budd,  opposition  member  of  assembly  for  West- 
chester County. 

In  the  autumn  a  new  chief  came  out.  Hunter  having  exchanged 
office  with  William  Burnet,  collector  of  customs  at  London.  When 
Burnet  was  almost  ruined  by  his  connection  with  the  South  Sea 
madness,  George  I  had  happily  remembered  that  his  father,  the 
witty  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  had  first  mentioned  to  William  that 
the  house  of  Hanover  was  the  next  Protestant  family  in  the  line 
of  succession,  and  in  consequence  came  to  his  rescue  with  one  of 
the  best  appointments  in  America.  Thus  necessity  first  turned 
William  Burnet's  attention  to  the  colony  which  he  was  to  govern, 
but  when  once  this  had  been  done,  his  interest  in  it  became  as 
sincere  and  unselfish  as  though  he  had  undertaken  its  adminis- 
tration from  motives  of  public  spirit  alone.  To  Golden,  in  his 
first  enthusiasm  over  the  possibilities  of  his  office,  the  new  gov- 
ernor came  as  a  welcome  ally.  He  went  at  his  work  with  renewed 
courage,  and  for  the  next  seven  years,  in  the  wild  forests  and 
swamps  of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  in  the  Shawangunk  and  Gatskill 
mountains,  over  the  pasture  and  farms  of  Ulster  and  Orange, 
along  the  Connecticut  border,  on  Westchester  estates,  and  in 
the  capital  city  and  its  vicinity,  he  did  the  colony  a  personal 

*  Calender  of  N.  Y.  Col.  Mss.,  Indorsed  Land  Papers. 
D 


34  Cadwallader  Colden 

service  of  direct  practical  value.  During  this  period  almost 
the  whole  number  of  recorded  surveys  were  made  by  Colden  in 
person  or  at  least  in  his  presence,  and  no  grants  were  issued 
without  a  proper  certificate  of  a  previous  survey.  His  study 
of  the  records  in  connection  with  his  work  revealed  many  dis- 
crepancies in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned.  He  found 
the  Salisbury  patentees  claiming  about  seventy  thousand  acres 
in  the  Catskill  region,  at  a  rent  of  half  a  bushel  of  wheat,  instead 
of  the  four  hundred  acres  mentioned  in  their  grant;  those  of 
Wawayanda,  the  acknowledged  length  of  which  was  over  fifty 
miles,  encroaching  on  one  of  the  resumed  grants  for  nearly 
thirty ;  those  of  Minnisink  asserting  their  right  to  above  twenty 
million  acres  by  a  patent  demanding  a  quit-rent  of  £3  a  year. 
The  last  two  grants  touched  on  Evans's  patent,  Wagachemek 
and  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  and  from  the  beginning  to 
the  middle  of  the  century  the  conflicts  of  their  patentees  in- 
fluenced colonial  politics  despite  Colden's  efforts  to  reduce 
matters  to  mathematical  certainty.  But  this  was  difficult 
when,  for  example,  a  patent  was  registered  to  a  Scotchman 
and  a  German  granting  several  tracts  designated  by  Indian 
names,  together  with  twelve  thousand  acres,  "anywhere  alto- 
gether within  their  limits,"  the  number  being  overwritten  six 
times.  Patents  like  these  were  already  hindering  the  settle- 
ment of  the  country  Sometimes,  indeed,  small  portions  of 
them  would  be  granted  by  the  crown  as  though  no  previous 
grants  had  existed.  But  no  sooner  would  the  grantee  take 
possession  than  his  life  would  be  made  a  burden  by  threats  of 
suits,  or  actual  suits,  in  courts  influenced  by  the  large  proprietor. 
Sometimes  even  more  violent  attempts  at  eviction  were  made, 
and  tales  of  such  experiences  spread,  turning  many  to  the  neigh- 
bouring colonies  rather  than  to  risk  their  repetition. 

Many  of  these  large  tracts  were  held  in  common,  and,  some  of 
the  partners  dying  or  disappearing  from  the  province,  acts 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  35 

were  passed  from  time  to  time  to  enable  the  living  resident 
owners  to  divide  them.     Such  an  act  was  disallowed  by  the  Lord 
Justices  in  1719,  but  another  was  passed  in  July,  172 1,  despite 
the  opposition  of  the  new  surveyor  general.     Burnet,  however, 
vetoed  it  and  sent  it  home  with  Colden's  memorial.     This  con- 
tained besides  the  technical  reasons  for  his  disapproval  a  clear 
historical  account  of  the  crown  lands,  and  offered  certain  con- 
clusions for  consideration.     It  seemed  evident,  he  said,  that 
the  lands  if  managed  well  would  supply  the  revenue.     He  had 
calculated  that  the  returns  from  eight  patents,  according  to 
their  present  claims,  would  bring  in  annually,  at  the  rate  of 
2s.  6d.  an  acre,  ;^4i76.     They  actually  paid  a  total  of  only  ;^i7 
17^.  6d.     Nevertheless,  their  present  value  being  small,  it  would 
be  impossible  for  their  owners  to  hold  them  on  such  a  basis, 
so  he  suggested  that  the  assembly  be  induced  to  pass  another 
act  vacating  the  remaining  exorbitant  grants  on  the  promise  of 
consideration  to  the  proprietors  in  case  of  their  prompt  obedi- 
ence and  a  threat  of  an  act  of  Parhament  if  they  refused  it.     If 
these  suggestions  were  thought  too  sweeping,  he  proposed  an 
act  of  Parliament  empowering  the  crown  surveyor  to  survey 
all  grants  and  forcing  the  grantees  to  enter  these  in  the  proper 
office. 

This  memorial  so  impressed  the  Board  of  Trade  that  they 
embodied  it  in  a  report  to  the  king,  and  there  the  matter  ended 
for  a  time.  In  the  summer  of  1724  another  partition  act  was 
approved,  but  it  was  found  unsatisfactory  in  its  working,  and 
two  years  later  still  another  passed  both  houses.  Golden,  who 
had  been  admitted  to  the  council  in  1722,  spoke  against  it  at  the 
first  and  second  readings,  but  was  not  present  when  it  passed. 
This  was  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  first  assembly  elected  since 
that  so  favorable  to  Hunter  had  begun  its  sessions  eleven  years 
before.  On  the  eve  of  the  elections  there  had  been  an  upheaval 
of  public  indignation  on  the  subject  of  land  monopoly.     People 


36  Cadwallader  Colden 

were  actually  being  forced  to  send  their  children  into  other 
colonies  because  of  the  lack  of  free  lands,  when  at  the  same 
time  influential  men  were  counting  their  acres  by  the  hundred 
thousand  and  scarcely  cultivating  a  hundred.  The  proprietors 
were  really  alarmed  and  hesitated  to  court  a  government  in- 
quiry by  going  on  with  the  work  of  division.  But  at  the  elections 
some  of  the  greatest  of  these  landowners  were  returned,  and  one 
of  the  first  acts  passed  was  this  partition  act  under  the  strong 
suspicion  that  it  was  done  at  once  to  gain  their  favour  and  show 
them  their  dependence  on  the  assembly.  Colden,  thoroughly 
aroused,  wrote  to  the  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  offer- 
ing a  memorial  against  the  act  for  the  board's  consideration.^ 
The  experience  of  the  last  few  years  had  given  him  a  text  from 
which  he  was  to  preach  many  times.  The  colonists  were  doing 
their  best  to  free  themselves  from  their  officials ;  their  next  act 
might  be  to  throw  off  king  and  Parliament,  and  there  was  but 
one  remedy  —  independent  salaries  for  the  necessary  administra- 
tors out  of  the  quit-rents.  To  the  act  itself  he  objected  be- 
cause of  its  repugnance  to  English  law,  its  arbitrary  methods, 
and  its  failure  to  provide  for  ascertaining  the  bounds,  though 
he  had  himself  offered  to  do  so  in  most,  if  not  in  all,  cases. 
Moreover,  as  it  was  said  that  after  the  division  many  of  the 
grants  were  to  be  sold  in  small  parcels,  if  the  title  of  these 
was  faulty,  the  loss  would  be  the  king's.  For  he  would  prefer 
this  rather  than  to  see  the  ruin  of  the  small  farmer  who 
had  purchased  in  good  faith.  Besides  there  was  in  reaUty 
no  need  of  a  partition  act  at  all,  as  writs  of  partition  could  con- 
fer all  the  requisite  power.  Again,  the  Board  of  Trade  was 
roused  to  activity,  and  again,  they  made  a  representation  to  the 
king.^  Their  conclusions,  reached  after  due  consideration  and 
consultation  with  one  of  the  crown  lawyers,  were  Mr.  Colden 's 
own.     They  suggested,  however,  a  different  remedy  in  the  form 

»  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V,  805-809.  2  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V,  843,  844. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  37 

of  an  additional  instruction.  This  provided  that  patentees  must 
cultivate  three  acres  in  every  hundred  within  three  years  of 
possession  or  forfeit  their  land.  Still,  had  this  instruction  been 
carried  out,  it  would  have  had  the  same  effect  as  the  exaction 
of  full  quit-rents,  owing  to  the  high  rate  of  wages  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  getting  labourers  at  any  price.  Meanwhile,  the  year 
had  passed  by,  and  Golden  had  received  no  official  answer  to  his 
memorial.  The  agent,  however,  had  written  enough  of  the  in- 
terest it  had  excited  to  alarm  the  proprietors,  and  Golden  was 
made  to  feel  their  resentment.  Once  more  he  wrote  to  the  secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Trade  his  poHtical  convictions  deepened  by 
personal  bitterness.  The  assembly  that  had  passed  the  act  in 
question  and  the  new  one  elected  on  the  news  of  the  king's  death 
in  the  summer  of  1727  had  shown  their  hands  without  reserve. 
They  were  determined  to  have  the  finances  and  the  judiciary  com- 
pletely in  their  power,  and  they  no  longer  cared  who  knew  it. 
Golden  eagerly  assured  the  board  that  this  was  the  true  state  of  the 
case,  even  though  apparent  concessions  might  be  made  to  the  new 
governor  to  gain  his  favour.  And  evidently  the  longer  this  sort  of 
thing  was  ignored,  the  harder  it  would  be  to  stop  it.  So  again  he 
proposed  to  turn  to  land  for  the  only  remedy  possible,  a  perma- 
nent salary  fund.  Unfortunately,  grave  as  was  his  position,  log- 
ical as  were  his  suggestions,  practicable  as  at  this  early  date  they 
may  have  been,  their  effect  was  spoiled'  by  the  personal  allu- 
sions which  he  found  irresistible.  To  be  sure,  this  was  a  fault 
common  to  much  of  the  correspondence  of  colonial  officials  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  but  it  was  not  universal,  and  in  the  present 
case  a  bitter  reference  to  a  proprietor  whom  Golden  considered 
his  most  prominent  enemy  formed  so  weak  a  climax  to  his 
argument  that  it  must  have  greatly  lessened  its  influence.* 

By  this  time  the  first  steps  toward  the  final  settlement  of  one 
of  New  York's  contested  boundaries  had  been  taken.    The 

'  George  Clarke. 


38  Cadwallader  Colden 

Dutch  had  settled  on  the  Hudson  and  Connecticut  years  before 
the  Puritan  migration  to  the  valley  of  the  last-named  river,  and 
to  all  the  country  between  the  two  they  laid  claim.  This  prob- 
ably prompted  the  use  of  the  Connecticut  River  as  New  York's 
eastern  boundary  in  the  Duke  of  York's  patent,  but  at  the  time 
of  Nicolls's  conquest  the  colony  of  Connecticut  had  encroached 
to  within  ten  miles  of  the  Hudson.  This  gave  her  an  equitable 
claim  to  that  territory,  which  Nicolls  was  quick  to  acknowledge, 
for  Dutch  were  many  and  Enghsh  few  in  his  possessions,  and 
it  was  prudent  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  his  neighbours.  In 
fact,  in  the  bounds  that  he  and  his  council  arranged  with  the 
representatives  of  Connecticut  the  line  crossed  the  Hudson 
about  thirty  miles  from  its  mouth.  But  New  York  could  not 
regard  such  an  arrangement  seriously,  and  in  1683  a  second 
agreement  was  concluded.^  By  this  the  line  was  to  begin  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Byram  River,  follow  the  stream  to  its  ford, 
and  then  extend  north-northwest  into  the  country  for  eight  miles. 
Going  back  to  the  mouth  of  the  Byram,  the  Sound  was  to  be 
followed  twelve  miles  to  the  eastward,  whence  another  north- 
northwest  Hne  was  to  be  run  for  eight  miles,  and  the  quadri- 
lateral was  to  be  completed  by  another  twelve- mile  line  parallel 
to  the  general  course  of  the  Sound.  From  the  northeast  ex- 
tremity of  this  quadrilateral,  a  hne  was  to  be  drawn  to  the 
Massachusetts  border,  parallel  to,  and  twenty  miles  distant 
from,  the  Hudson.  East  from  this  hne  as  much  was  to  be 
added  to  New  York  as  had  been  taken  from  it  by  the  quadri- 
lateral. Some  of  the  lines  were  actually  run,  the  report  of 
the  surveyors  was  confirmed  by  the  two  governments  at  Milford 
in  1684,  and  the  general  agreement  by  King  William  in  1700. 
But  Connecticut  felt  that  overmuch  had  been  wrung  from  her 

*  Colden's  Remarks  on  the  Connecticut  Boundary,  The  Colden  Letter 
Books,  I,  301,  302;  James  Alexander  to  Colden,  November  22,  1731.  Colden 
to  Major  Woolcot,  March  6,  1732. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  39 

at  a  time  when,  owing  to  the  threatened  withdrawal  of   her 
charter,  she  dared  not  but  comply,  and  as  soon  as  her  fears  were 
removed  she  disputed  the  jurisdiction  of  several  towns  within 
the  territory  conceded  to  New  York.     The  consequent  disturb- 
ances produced  an  act  which  Hunter  signed  just  before  he  left, 
authorizing  commissioners  to  complete  and  confirm  the  survey. 
Connecticut,  fearing  an  ex  parte  Hne,  pretended  to  follow  this 
lead,  but  by  an  absurd  subterfuge  her  commissioners  were  em- 
powered to  "perambulate"  the  Hnes  instead  of  to  run  them, 
while  her  agent  opposed,  though  unsuccessfully,  the  king's  ap- 
probation of  the  New  York  act.     New  York  remonstrating,  her 
General  Court  passed  an  act  censuring  New  York  and  con- 
tradicting the  agreement  of  1683.     But  she  could  hold  out  no 
longer,  and  after  a  preHminary  skirmish  the  preceding  year  at 
New  Rochelle,  surveyors  and  commissioners  from  both  colonies 
met  at  Greenwich  in  the  spring  of  1725.     Those  representing 
New  York  were  Isaac  Hicks,  Francis  Harrison,  and  Cadwallader 
Golden.     Several  other  meetings  were  held  at  different  points 
in  the  neighbourhood,  but  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  Con- 
necticut men  were  designedly  blocking  proceedings,  and  Golden 
and  his  associates  notified  them  that  they  were  going  to  run  the 
line  ex  parte.     Before  separating,  however,  they  all  met  for  a 
social  hour,  when  Golden,  knowing  that  an  ex  parte  Hne  would 
leave  everything  as  unsettled  as  before,  took  one  of  the  Con- 
necticut men  aside  and  asked  him  to  say  frankly  what  was  the 
matter.     He  repHed  without  hesitation  that  it  was  their  con- 
cern for  the  people  of  Ridgefield.     This  township  was  situated 
in  the  strip  to  be  conceded  to  New  York,  and  its  thrifty  and 
prosperous  inhabitants  objected  to  becoming  tenants  of  that 
government  and  buying  their  own  improvements.     Mr.  Colden 
laid  the  matter  before  his  fellow- commissioners,  and  negotia- 
tions were  resumed,  resulting  in  a  survey  and  report  by  which  all 
property  rights  in  the  township  were  to  be  recognized,  though 


40  Cadwallader  Colden 

proprietors  were  to  be  considered  as  tenants  of  New  York  and 
not  of  Connecticut.  The  New  York  council  approved  this  re- 
port on  May  20,  1725,  but  as  the  appropriation  for  the  purpose 
had  been  exhausted  by  the  delay,  the  running  of  the  line  was 
of  necessity  deferred. 

Meanwhile,  Colden  and  Burnet  had  been  suffering  the  con- 
sequences of  over- enthusiasm  for  reform,  and  when  Burnet 
was  finally  superseded  by  Colonel  Montgomerie,  Colden  found 
it  wiser  to  retire  for  a  time  from  poUtics  and  other  town  dissi- 
pations. Nor  did  Montgomerie  become  sufficiently  interested 
in  land  during  his  short  administration  to  make  Colden  at  all 
necessary,  and  it  was  not  until  Montgomerie 's  death  brought 
over  Colonel  William  Cosby  as  governor  that  the  surveyor  gen- 
eral's office  again  became  popular.  Before  that  Colden  had 
assisted  in  the  final  adjustment  of  the  Connecticut  boundary. 
Its  survey  at  the  cost  of  the  government  seeming  as  far  off  as 
ever,  some  Ridgefield  farmers  had  proposed  to  several  New 
York  gentlemen  that  they  run  the  line  at  their  own  expense, 
receiving  as  compensation  the  patent  of  the  land  that  New 
York  was  to  receive  as  an  equivalent  for  her  claim  on  and  near 
the  Sound.  Among  the  New  York  men  concerned  were  James 
Alexander,  WilHam  Smith,  and  George  Clarke,  Clarke  agree- 
ing to  the  proposition  only  on  condition  of  Colden 's  approval. 
This  the  surveyor  general  cordially  gave,  as  well  as  a  promise 
to  supervise  the  survey,  in  return  for  which  be  became  a  share- 
holder in  Ueu  of  fees.  The  work  went  rapidly  on  to  comple- 
tion and  the  patent  had  passed  the  seal,  when,  in  July,  1731, 
word  came  that  a  patent  for  the  same  lands,  known  as  "the 
equivalent,"  or  "oblong,"  and  consisting  of  61,441  acres,  had 
been  granted  by  the  king  to  the  Duke  of  Chandos  and  several 
other  EngUshmen  with  Francis  Harison,  member  of  assembly 
for  New  York.  Mr.  Harison,  who  was  the  city  recorder,  had 
been  a  friend  of  Burnet's,  who  had  promised  him  a  generous 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  41 

share  of  the  oblong.  But  before  the  plans  for  its  division  were 
consummated,  he  had  gone  over  to  the  opposition,  and  it  was  only 
through  Burnet's  good  nature  that  he  received  even  a  diminished 
portion.  Still  he  was  dissatisfied,  and  this  was  his  revenge.  A 
remonstrance  was  despatched  to  England,  and  in  reply  the  paten- 
tees there  offered  two  thousand  acres  to  the  American  partners 
as  a  quit-claim.  Meanwhile,  Alexander  and  Smith  had  been  col- 
lecting documents,  including  copies  or  originals,  of  all  the  steps 
taken  in  regard  to  the  Connecticut  boundary,  and  Golden  had 
summed  up  the  situation  in  a  letter  to  one  of  the  Enghsh  paten- 
tees on  which  as  evidence  the  Enghsh  offer  was  unanimously 
refused.  The  best  legal  advice  in  England  was  retained,  adver- 
tisements were  put  in  the  London  newspapers,  copies  of  the  docu- 
ments were  distributed  to  the  Enghsh  patentees,  and  Golden  was 
asked  to  draw  up  a  memorial  to  the  king  and  to  make  a  sketch 
of  a  hke  memorial  to  be  sent  by  the  General  Gourt  of  Connecticut, 
begging  him  to  obtain  the  patentees'  release  or  to  void  their 
patent  by  scire  facias  or  otherwise.  But  Golden  was  dissatis- 
fied with  everything  that  had  been  done,  and  for  some  occult 
reason  chose  to  consider  the  request  that  he  sum  up  the  case 
mere  "banter."  Indeed,  it  was  only  after  some  months  and 
much  urging  that  he  consented  to  do  his  part.  The  final  agree- 
ment had  also  been  delayed  by  the  demands  of  some  of  the 
smaller  holders,  and  Harison  hastened  to  take  advantage  of 
their  contentions  by  attempting  prior  settlement  under  the 
Enghsh  patent.  He  was,  however,  unsuccessful,  owing  to  the 
prompt  action  of  Alexander  and  Smith,  and  at  length,  on 
the  i8th  of  May,  1732,  the  articles  of  agreement  were  indented, 
and  the  next  week  Golden  received  the  warrants  for  the  indi- 
vidual shares.^ 

About  this  time  Gosby,  who  had  only  kissed  hands  for  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  the  preceding  January,  arrived  in  town 
*  Alexander  to  Colden,  November  20,  1731,  and  December  23,  1731. 


42  Cadwallader  Colden 

and  immediately  affairs  political  took  on  a  lively  tinge.  For 
Cosby  began  by  claiming  more  salary  than  the  late  acting 
governor  thought  his  due,  and  in  the  ensuing  litigation  every 
man  of  prominence  in  the  colony  became  to  some  extent  in- 
volved. For  his  part  Colden  sincerely  desired  to  hold  aloof, 
but  his  most  intimate  associates,  James  Alexander  and  Lewis 
Morris,  soon  became  Cosby's  dearest  foes,  and  though  the 
governor  had  fleeting  intentions  of  getting  on  a  more  confidential 
basis  with  the  surveyor  general,  the  latter's  loyalty  to  his  friends 
rankled  and  in  the  end  prevented  any  real  harmony  with  his 
chief.  Cosby,  however,  had  plenty  of  supporters,  Clarke,  Ken- 
nedy, Delancey,  and  in  fact  almost  the  whole  council  vigorously 
championing  him  against  his  predecessor.  Rip  Van  Dam. 
Another  strong  ally  was  Horsmanden,  to  whom  he  had  taken 
a  quick  fancy,  and  if  this  proved  rather  intermittent,  it  was 
exploited  to  good  effect  while  active.  Indeed,  the  fact  that  the 
governor  had  made  the  debt-ridden  young  lawyer  a  member  of 
the  council  was  one  of  the  charges  against  him.  At  the  same 
time  Horsmanden  in  some  way  maintained  the  pleasant  rela- 
tions with  Colden,  begun  when  he  had  arrived  in  the  country, 
supplied  with  introductions  to  the  surveyor  general  and  others 
and  little  else  beside.  For  purposes  of  his  own,  he  managed 
to  keep  in  close  touch  with  Coldengham,  and  his  letters  on  mat- 
ters of  territorial  and  poHtical  import  are  illuminating. 

"The  Assembly  are  to  sit  according  to  Adjournm*,  the 
third  Tuesday  of  this  Month,"  he  wrote  Colden  in  April,  1733, 
"[and]  I  presume  you  will  have  notice  but  I  hope  you  will  be 
here  punctually  at  that  time  for  many  reasons  &  among  the 
rest  because  I  have  heard  some  Exceptions  taken  to  members 
of  the  Council  hving  at  a  great  Distance  out  of  Towne  &  w*'^ 
what  view  I  could  not  but  guess."  Such  solicitude,  however,  was 
unusual,  and  Horsmanden  generally  wrote  only  to  ask  a  favour. 
"I  mentioned  the  Kingston  affair  to  the  Governor,"  he  wrote 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  43 

the  next  January,  "and  told  him  that  you  were  so  kind  as  to 
give  me  a  share.  All  the  answer  I  could  get  was  that  things 
must  come  on  in  turn.  He  says  he  is  determined  to  take  money 
in  Ueu  of  dirt  in  future  and  I  fear  Mr.  Clarke  has  such  a  hold 
on  him  that  he  will  grant  nothing  without  his  having  a 
share." 

This  "Kingston  affair"  was  a  tract  of  land  in  the  vicinity  of 
that  town  which  Golden  had  pointed  out  as  likely  to  make  the 
snug  patent  that  Horsmanden  desired.  "I  wish  that  you 
lived  at  a  day's  journey,"  the  latter  wrote  later  in  the  week,* 
"I  just  now  press 'd  the  Affair  of  Kingston  to  the  Gov'  as  far 
as  I  could  in  Decency,  &  insinuated  a  temptation  to  him  to 
dispatch  that  affair,  by  suggesting  that  they  might  perhaps 
have  something  further  to  discover,  when  this  was  finished, 
and  that  he  might  probably  have  ready  money  for  the  share 
he  demands;  but  all  without  effect.  For  he  says,  he  cannot 
think  of  it  'til  the  Spring  &  he  intends  then  to  be  up  there  him- 
self, what  he  means  by  this  he  but  knows.  He  tells  me  that 
for  the  future  he  intends  to  take  money  instead  of  lands :  whether 
anything  can  be  done  with  him  in  such  matters  I  am  not  able 
to  say:  but  he  has  often  promised  both  Gapt  Long  and 
myself  such  a  good  Lump  of  Land  at  once  &  if  6  or  8  thousand 
acres  can  be  discovered  worth  asking  for,  we  are  determined  to 
push  it  at  once ;  Gapt"  Long,  I  am  Sure,  he  is  exceedingly 
obliged  to,  &  I  think  he  is  indebted  something  to  me  for  my 
Services.  The  quantity  &  manner  of  disposing  we  leave  to 
your  discretion.  .  .  .  Mathews  has  a  whole  pacquet  of  news 
to  joke  with  you  upon."  Golden  again  acted  the  friendly  part, 
and  still  later  in  the  same  month  Horsmanden  thus  naively 
acknowledged  his  good  offices:  "You  have  very  much  obliged 
me  by  the  favour  of  yours  of  the  if^  Inst*  wch  I  received  last 
night  &  was  determined  to  lose  no  time  in  acknowledging  of 

»  January  8,  1733/4. 


44  Cadwallader  Colden 

them.  Whatever  Danger  may  be  Apprehended  from  the  Cor- 
respondence (tho'  at  present  I  am  not  aware  of  much  prejudice) 
yet  be  the  Consequence  what  it  may  I  am  determined  in- 
violably to  maintain  &  improve  on  my  part  the  ffriendship 
commenced  between  us  wch  proceeds  from  my  Real  good 
Opinion  &  Sincere  Inchnations  towards  you  more  than  Self 
Interest.  Tho  really  I  have  hv'd  long  enough  in  the  World  to 
judge  from  the  frailty  &  necessity  of  human  Nature :  That  no 
flFriendships  are  so  strongly  cemented  as  those  carry'd  on  by 
mutual  Ints  &  Services.  Your  profession  with  respect  to  my 
Friend  the  Captn  &  myself,  we  both  think  ourselves  exceedingly 
obhged  to  you  for,  &  pticr'^  as  to  the  Land  you  recommend 
wch  lys  Intervening  between  the  20  m  pattes  &  the  Oblong, 
We  must  beg  some  further  acct  of  it,  what  Quantity  you  may 
guess  it  contains,  whether  there  is  not  a  very  fine  Swamp  in  it 
or  piece  of  Water  wch  may  turne  to  very  good  acct  by  draining," 
etc.  "You  sit  stil  by  your  Country  fire,"  he  added  later, 
"enjoying  yourself  &  FFamily  wth  the  utmost  peace  &  Satis- 
faction, while  we  are  in  the  midst  of  pty  flames  &  where  things 
will  End  I'm  not  prophet  enough  to  foretell." 

But  if  Colden  was  otherwise  easy,  Horsmanden  was  deter- 
mined to  keep  him  active  in  his  service.  By  the  end  of  March 
he  had  another  scheme  in  view.  "Yours  dated  from  Albany 
I  reed  the  ii***  Inst*.  But  not  time  enough  to  prevent  the 
request  of  Captn  Long  &  myself  of  the  Gov'  concerning  the 
3000  [acres]  recommended  by  Mathews  wch  was  made  2  days 
before,  but  with  what  Success  it  will  End,  I  cannot  yet  posi- 
tively Determine.  I  wish  I  had  reed  yrs  time  enough  I  wo*^ 
have  punctually  observ'd  yr  Directions,  but  The  Capt"  &  my- 
self were  resolv'd  to  make  our  utmost  Efforts  in  the  Request 
of  so  smal  a  pittance.  We  determined  to  ask  for  3000  *  as  for 
Ourselves,  ffor  wch  Reason  we  feigned  as  if  The  Countryman 
had  offered  to  discover  The  land  upon  our  Obtaining  a  Warrant 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  45 

of  Survey  &  Lodging  20  pistoles  in  a  third  person's  hands  to 
be  paid  him  upon  Our  Approbation  of  the  Land:  &  in  this 
manner  I  first  opened  the  m'^  [matter]  to  his  Wossp  [Worship] : 
I  told  that  the  Quantity  was  too  large  for  me  to  ask  for  myself 
agreable  to  his  Instructions  &  therefore  I  chose  to  take  Captn 
Long  in  a  partner  whom  I  under  stood  he  had  made  a  promise  of 
Land  to  as  well  as  myself,  he  sd  there  was  nothing  in  that 
he  wod  have  granted  it  to  me  But  he  must  have  his  3'''*  &  he 
wod  pay  7  Pistoles  for  his  Share  &  6  more  for  me  &  Captn 
Long  the  rest.  This  was  with  an  air  of  generosity  to  me  but 
Captn  Long  was  to  pay  more  than  a  proportion:  Now  you 
must  know  we  did  not  think  it  wod  be  any  crime  considering 
whom  we  were  dealing  with  to  put  it  on  this  footing  but  per- 
haps you  will  say  we  were  out  in  our  PolUticks  &  indeed  I 
wish  we  had  not  taken  that  method,  ffor  afterwds  we  found 
ourselves  under  a  necessity  of  telling  the  Truth  of  the  case 
That  now  the  Countryman  insisted  on  an  equal  Share  with  the 
Captn  &  myself  &  I  told  him  since  this  was  the  case  I  did  not 
think  twas  worth  while  to  meddle  with  it:  But  Captn  Long 
attacqued  him  after"^*^'  &  askt  The  Grant  of  the  whole  to  us 
two  as  we  were  to  give  a  Declaration  of  Trust  to  The  Country- 
man for  1000  acres  which  he  readily  promised  him  wch  as  was 
imagined  he  could  not  with  any  sort  of  Grace  refuse  him,  tho' 
he  certainly  would  to  me:  After  this  passed  with  the  Captn  I 
saw  him  again  &  he  seemed  to  be  somewhat  netld  &  askt  me 
who  this  Countryman  was  ffor  he  sd  I  might  tell  him  as  the 
Countryman  had  broke  his  word  with  me,  but  I  answered 
him,  as  I  shod  have  said  I  told  him  before  that  I  had  En- 
gaged my  word  &  Honour  not  to  discover  him  &  I  was 
psuaded  That  if  I  gave  his  Ex*'''  one  Instance  That  I  was  capa- 
ble of  forfeiting  so  Solemn  an  Engagemt  etc.  I  must  give  him  a 
very  bad  Opinion  of  me  &  That  he  might  expect  I  might  Do  it 
thereafter  to  himself.    Therefore  beg'd  to  be  Excus'd  whereupon 


46  Cadwallader  Colden 

he  went  off  in  a  huff  &  sd  twas  a  Trick  to  cheat  him  of 
his  3'"''*  &  has  lookt  coolly  upon  me  Since  but  I  intend  to  desire 
his  Explanation  as  the  Declaration  was  general  as  to  the  pson 
he  suspects  of  it  &  to  battle  it  out  with  him.  The  Capt  has 
just  been  with  me  &  as  the  Gov''  sd  to  me  that  there  was  an 
end  of  it,  he  intends  to  insist  upon  his  word  with  him  &  I  beheve 
considering  all  Circumstances  w*^  Respect  to  past  favours  or 
rather  more  for  what  they  have  further  to  ask,  he'll  not  run  the 
Risque  of  fforfeiting  his  ffriendship  with  the  additional  Reproach 
of  breaking  his  word.  I  have  since  I  wrote  to  you  last  men- 
tioned The  Aff'  of  Kingston  at  Esopus  abot  ye  8000  *  but  I  am 
from  his  Conduct  in  that  m'®  [matter]  induced  to  think  that  he 
intends  to  lay  his  claim  upon  the  whole  for  himself,  ffor  in  the 
case  of  his  3"^^  as  above  he  told  me  that  the  profitts  of  his 
Government  were  so  inconsiderable  that  he  was  Obhged  to 
make  the  most  of  everything,  &  yt  twas  customary  for  Govrs 
to  take  their  3'''^*  of  all  Grants  But  it  is  nevertheless  my  humble 
Opinion  That  every  pson  upon  his  petitioning  the  Govr  & 
Council  has  a  Right  to  have  that  pet"  heard  &  I  beheve  wo*^ 
be  thought  at  home  to  have  a  Right  to  have  the  Land  discovered 
Granted  to  him.  I'm  sure  that  is  the  Opinion  of  Govr  & 
Council  in  other  Colonys.  I  know  it  is  so  in  Virginia  &  I 
beheve  if  such  a  practice  as  taking  3""*^*  was  to  be  laid  open  .  .  . 
it  wo"^  be  thought  somewhat  Criminal.  The  Captn  is  now 
returned  &  informs  me  that  the  Gov'  ffathers  the  contrivance 
upon  me  &  he  knows  the  Land  &  tis  very  valuable,  tis  in 
Westchester  &  upon  the  River  &  'tis  for  the  Morisania  family 
&  that  I  don't  use  him  well  in  not  discovering  the  Author  & 
that  there  is  an  end  of  the  Affair :  that  he'll  do  nothing  in  it : 
so  that  you  may  judge  how  m"^  [matters]  are  hke  to  go  betwixt 
us:    you  are  proved  a  true  Prophet." 

By  August  this  indefatigable  schemer  had  still  another  plan. 
"  But  I  must  inform  you  first  of  all,"  he  wrote  Colden  on  the  27th 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  47 

of  the  month,  "  that  the  report  Coll  Morris  told  you  of  concerning 
my  writing  to  Mr.  Perry  that  he  was  dead  &  applying  for  his  place 
upon  that  suggestion  has  given  Captn  Norris  [who  had  married 
Miss  Morris]  such  a  spleen  against  me  that  nothing  less  than 
my  destruction  could,  I  suppose,  satisfy  his  Resentm*  so  that 
he  procured  (not  without  some  Industry  I  have  reason  to  think) 
a  power  of  Attorney  from  Some  Creditor  of  mine,  to  sue  me 
here  &  this  was  reported  in  Town  immediately  on  his  arrival 
with  the  addition  of  all  the  Opprobrious  Language  BiHings- 
gate  could  furnish  tho'  upon  Enquiry  this  ffact  is  denyed,  &  tis 
said  only  that  he  had  it  offered  but  refused  the  Office.  I  pre- 
sume if  he  had  it,  the  Morrisania  family  have  advised  him 
not  to  own  it:  But  for  an  Instance  to  show  that  Providence 
brings  good  out  of  Evil,  the  Gov'  has  upon  this  occasion  shown 
the  handsomest  kind  of  Resentmt  upon  his  Returne  from  the 
plains  by  Assuring  me  that  my  Enemys  shall  not  have  their 
Ends.  That  he  will  do  everything  in  his  power  to  make  me 
safe,  &  has  promised  me  that  as  soon  as  his  pattents  are 
passed  for  the  Governor's  Lands  I  shall  have  2000  acres  of 
them  conveyed  to  me  without  any  expense  &  any  other  Lands 
I  could  get  IntelHgence  of  that  wod  answer  my  purpose  .  .  . 
&  then  told  me  Mr  Clarke  had  mentioned  this  6000  acres 
&  ordered  me  forthwith  to  prepare  the  Petition  for  the 
Indian  purchase  &  he  would  have  a  Council  in  a  day  or  two 
&  it  should  be  done.  He  also  promised  me  the  Recordership 
when  Harison  lays  it  down.  In  short  his  Behaviour  upon  this 
occasion  has  been  exceeding  kind  &  handsome,  &  the  Lycence 
I  have  got  accordingly  wch  I  enclose  yo.  If  you  can  do  me 
any  service  upon  the  warrant  you  have  already  or  in  Recom- 
mending any  other  Piece  of  Land  wch  may  be  of  service  to 
yourself  as  well  as  to  me,  now  is  the  time  to  Strike  while  the 
Iron  is  hot,  pray  let  me  know  by  the  first  opportunity  whether 
you  shall  be  from  home  any  time   next   month   for   I   shall 


48  Cadwallader  Colden 

be  tempted  (I  believe)  to  take  a   2nd  Race  over   your  high 
Lands." 

Naturally,  Horsmanden's  success  in  obtaining  honours  and 
acquisitions  denied  to  many  a  better  man  brought  him  enemies, 
who  made  the  most  of  his  reputation  for  a  rather  shady  im- 
pecuniousness.  This,  unfortunately,  only  incited  Cosby  to  an 
even  greater  generosity,  and  Horsmanden  vi^rote  complacently 
in  November,  1734:  "This  Scandalous  &  Villainous  Treatm* 
has  made  the  Gov^  Sensible  that  I  have  not  been  the  pson  he 
suspected  me  to  be  from  those  good  Offices  I  have  endeavoured 
to  do  to  those  who  are  become  my  profess'd  Enimys  &  has 
therefore  engaged  himself  to  pay  a  consi''^®  part  of  the  Debt 
&  has  in  the  most  Solemn  manner  assured  my  ff*^^  whom  I 
prevailed  with  to  solUcit  this  matter  with  him  That  whatever 
Lands  I  can  get  Intelligence  of  wch  may  be  for  my  purposes 
&  likely  to  sell  &  raise  money  upon  he  will  Grant  then  to  me 
if  'tis  6,  8,  or  10,000;,^.  Yourself  &  Mr.  Mathews  are  the  only 
fif^*  wch  I  can  hope  for  any  service  of  this  kind  from.  I  am 
sensible  that  whatever  you  may  be  able  to  Communicate  in 
psuance  of  this  Request  may  probably  be  what  he  &  you  might 
most  reasonably  have  designed  to  have  found  some  Account  in 
yourselves." 

And  for  some  undiscoverable  reason  Colden  did  thus  serve 
this  incorrigible  beggar,  and  continued  to  respond  to  his  over- 
tures even  when  Horsmanden  had  become  the  American  at- 
torney of  the  EngUsh  patentees  of  the  oblong  who  had  by  no 
means  given  up  the  fight.  "You  pretty  well  know  my  senti- 
ments as  to  ye  equivalent  that  the  L*^*  are  not  worth  my 
Clyents  Strugling  for:  But  if  they  differ  in  Opinion  &  psist, 
I  do  think  your  grant  must  be  destroyed  &  might  &  probably 
would  be  defeated  if  the  EngUsh  grant  was  out  of  the  question 
&  tho'  (as  some  use  the  phrase)  I  am  paid  for  thinking,  I  think 
I  must  declare  so  if  I  were  not :    I  shall  ever  Remember  your 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  49 

kind  proposall  at  Our  parting  with  respect  to  the  6000  *[  cres] 
Collins  has  the  Survey  for.  But  in  my  present  Anguish  of 
mind  I  did  in  the  morning  entreat  your  further  kind  Assist- 
ance which  may  in  strictness  be  thought  bearing  too  hard  upon 
your  good  Nature :  But  if  you  Should  think  so  I  yet  flatter  my- 
self from  your  ffdship  &  Candour  you  will  excuse  it  from  the 
urgency  of  my  affairs  at  this  Juncture  .  .  .  there  is  Httle  (or  I 
may  say  no)  Hopes  for  Old  Morris's  being  Restored  Therefore 
nothing  remains  for  him  but  to  doe  what  Little  Mischief  more 
remains  in  his  power." 

Long  before  this  Colden's  own  affairs  had  approached  a 
crisis.  Despite  an  undoubted  wilUngness  to  take  the  oppor- 
tunities Providence  was  throwing  in  his  way,  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  had  tried  to  do  his  duty  as  he  under- 
stood it,  and  one  of  his  first  communications  to  Cosby  had  been 
a  memorial  on  the  province  lands  containing  much  old  material 
but  reaching  certain  conclusions  that  were  new  to  his  temper.* 
Starting  with  the  rather  unusual  conviction  that  change  and 
destruction  is  wont  to  spring  from  the  landed  class,  he  proceeded 
to  evolve  some  decidedly  conservative  remedies.  It  was  in- 
evitable, he  confessed,  that  any  attempt  of  a  government  to 
curtail  the  property  of  its  subjects  would  be  looked  at  jealously 
anywhere,  but  especially  so  in  America,  where  few  grants  were 
flawless  and  where  the  sympathies  of  the  small  and  honest 
proprietor  were  with  the  unscrupulous  monopolist  who,  natu- 
rally, could  be  trusted  to  make  the  most  of  this  tendency.  To 
prevent  this,  an  absolute  confirmation  of  all  grants,  save  such 
as  were  "truly  extravagant,"  might  be  of  service,  but  the  diffi- 
culty here  would  be  successfully  to  avoid  making  the  necessary 
exceptions  either  too  general  or  too  particular.  He  therefore 
suggested  the  abolition  of  all  existing  rents  by  act  of  Parliament 
and  the  offer  of  the  confirmation  of  all  grants  on  a  promise  to 

'  New  York  Documentary  History,  I,  247. 


50  Cadwallader  Colden 

pay  annually  2S.  6d.  a  hundred  acres.  In  this  way  the  quit- 
rents  would  be  restored  and  the  exorbitant  grants  destroyed, 
for  no  one  could  keep  them  intact  at  such  a  price.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  find  a  more  equitable  method  of  taxation,  the 
merchants  would  be  relieved,  and  the  only  persons  dissatisfied 
would  be  the  big  landholders.  In  this  way,  also,  the  quit- 
rents,  which  he  proceeded  to  estimate,  and  which  at  the  time 
barely  paid  the  recorder  and  auditor,  could  be  made  to  cover 
the  whole  estabUshment,  "and  that  Gentlemans  place  would  be 
thought  to  be  ill  managed,  when  it  only  paid  his  Steward  and 
his  Clerk."  Yet  there  was  a  difficulty  here  too.  The  people 
would  reahze  that  such  a  method  would  remove  all  salutary 
check  on  their  officials,  and  Colden  seemed  to  think  that  their 
consequent  opposition  would  be  well  timed.  He  was,  however, 
vaguely  optimistic  as  to  the  probable  discovery  of  satisfactory 
compensations.  Unfortunately,  this  fair-mindedness  went  for 
nothing,  and  the  manuscript  of  the  memorial  bears  the  following 
note  in  Colden 's  handwriting  and  dated  May,  1752:  "It  is 
now  twenty  years  since  I  dehvered  the  above  Memorial  to 
Colonel  Cosby  soon  after  his  arrival.  I  question  whether  ever 
he  read  it.  I  have  reason  to  think  he  gave  it  to  the  person  in 
whom  he  then  confided  who  had  no  inclination  to  forward  the 
purposes  of  it.  It  had  no  other  effect  than  to  be  prejudicial  to 
myself. 

"The  computations  of  what  the  lands  would  have  at  that  time 
produced  at  2^  6d  per  hundred  acres  I  believe  were  made 
within  bounds.  The  settlements  are  greatly  increased  since 
that  time  more  than  in  fifty  years  before  it  so  that  I  make  no 
doubt  they  will  produce  6ooo;^  a  year,  taking  in  a  reasonable 
Quitrent  for  the  house  lots  in  the  Cities  of  New  York  and 
Albany. 

"  I  forgot  to  mention  that  it  appears  from  the  Records  that 
numbers  of  house  lots  were  granted  under  the  yearly  Quit- 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  51 

Rents  of   one  shilling,  two  shillings   &c  or   some  such  small 
rent  which  I   believe  is  now  never  paid." 

Instead  of  considering  the  interests  of  the  province  as  well 
as  his  own,  Cosby  was  devoting  his  attentions  to  the  latter 
exclusively,  and  not  only  demanded,  as  we  have  seen,  a  third  of 
every  patent  granted,  but  petitioned  quite  constantly  for  grants 
for  himself.     When  it  is  learned  that  well  within  two  years  of 
his  arrival  patents  passed  for  15,000,   27,000,  86,000,   15,000 
again,  12,000,  25,000, 18,000,  and  22,000  acres  respectively,  with 
many  others  for  tracts  varying  from  2000  to  8000  acres,  and 
when  it  is  learned  also  that  during  that  time  he  had  asked  for 
himself  outright  48,000  acres,  it  will  be  seen  that  he  had  a  large 
ambition.     But  he  was  dissatisfied.      He  felt  that  the  surveyor 
general  did  not  meet  him  halfway,  and  possibly,  also,  he  was 
irritated  to  see  a  man  whose  whole  attitude  was  superior,  and 
who  refused  absolutely  to  scheme  with  him,  adding  steadily  to 
his  own  possessions.     "As  to  my  part,  I  cannot  value  myself 
upon  any  great  share  in  the  Governours  friendship,"  Golden 
had  written  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Hill,  in  January,  1734,  "but  it  is 
said  to  be  some  comfort  to  have  many  under  the  same  misfor- 
tune.    However  the  distance  I  am  at  from  New  York  frees  me 
from  a  good  deal  of  uneasiness  that  could  not  be  avoided  were 
I  there  at  this  time.     My  endeavour  shall  be  to  maintain  a 
Character  of  an  honest  man   &  while  I  do  that  I  hope  never 
to  forfeit  your  esteem  &  love.  ...     I  have  taken  all  the  meas- 
ures which  I  think  prudent  to  guard  against  any  attempts  that 
may  be  made   &  I  hope  they  will  be  successfull  but  they  will 
create  me  some  Expense." 

These  precautions,  however,  came  very  near  being  unavailing. 
In  October  Golden,  who  had  just  finished  a  survey  of  twenty- 
eight  thousand  acres  for  the  governor,  heard  from  Horsmanden 
as  follows:  "Our  ffriend  Mathews  yesterday  Surprized  me  with 
an  Acco*  That  on  Saturday  Evening  last  You  were  Suspended 


52  Cadwallader  C olden 

from  your  Office  of  Surve/  Gen-  If  it  be  true,  'twas  done  in 
Such  privacy  that  I  knew  not  one  Syllable  of  it.  It  could 
hardly  be  done  in  Council  ffor  I  believe  there  were  not  at  that 
time  a  Suff^  number  in  Towne  with  me,  &  there  was  no  Council 
in  the  Evening  that  I  heard  of  &  I'm  Sure  'twas  not  done  in 
the  morning  ffor  we  all  broke  up  &  went  away  together:  If 
this  be  true,  ( &  I  have  long  found  that  all  the  Secrets  trans- 
acted there  soon  come  to  Light)  you  no  doubt  will  Determine 
to  goe  home  the  first  Opportunity  in  order  to  Doe  yourself 
Justice   &  now  two  or  3  Ships  are  going. 

*'  A  Particular  ffriend  of  yours  has  ever  since  you  went  been 
most  Importunate  w*.*"  me  for  the  Dr*  of  the  Bill  in  Chancery, 
his  Scheme  opens  to  me  plainer  every  Day;  ...  I  asked  him, 
between  him  &  myself,  how  he  came  to  come  into  it  if  'twas 
such  as  he  seems  now  so  grossly  to  explode,  he  s*?  he  believed 
he  was  bewitcht:  'tis  a  most  ungrateful  task  to  me  to  have  it 
fall  within  the  Duty  of  my  Profession  that  I  am  obliged  soon 
in  a  Bill  of  Equity  to  charge  my  fi'riend  whom  I  am  persuaded 
of  being  a  man  of  Sense  &  Honour  with  Epithets  that  are 
odious  to  him  &  myself.  But  you  know  they  are  words  of 
Course  in  such  Cases,  &  you  are  in  very  Good  Company,  M" 
Clarke  Kennedy  A.  V.  Home  Vincent  Mathews  Alexander  & 
Smith   &c  who  will  have  a  Share  with  you: 

"  But  if  this  matter  be  true,  That  you  are  actually  Suspended; 
I  am  aware  of  anor  Drift  of  your  Adversarys  in  pressing  & 
hastening  this  Bill  so  much  w*'*'  if  the  Design  be  as  I  Surmise 
will  be  in  Effect  Tying  up  your  hands  to  cut  your  throat  i.e.) 
If  the  Bill  Sho*^  be  filed  time  enough,  &  you  sho*^  be  preparing 
for  England  To  endeavour  to  Stop  you  by  a  Ne  exeat,  for  w"'* 
Reason  I  do  assure  you  I  will  stay  my  hand  as  long  as  possible, 
&  if  there  is  any  Danger  in  that,  you  shall  not  fail  of  knowing 
it ;  &  'tis  but  keeping  over  at  Hoebuck  whilst  your  Son  by  your 
Directions  prepares  your  things  here  &  so  to  go  on  Board  from 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  53 

thence :  This,  nothing  less  than  the  Sacred  Tyes  of  ffriendship 
&  the  Value  I  have  for  you  &  the  Confidence  &  Trust  I  im- 
pose in  you  could  have  prevailed  on  me  to  Communicate  .  .  . 
&  you  may  be  assured:  That  whatever  I  can  imagine  hear  or 
think  of  w''.^  may  be  for  your  Service  to  knowe  consistent  v^ith 
my  honour  &  Conscience  to  impart,  you  Shall  have  from  me." 

As  it  happened  Cosby  had  not  come  to  the  point  of  suspend- 
ing the  surveyor  general.  He  must  have  known  that  his  con- 
duct since  arriving  in  New  York  was  receiving  stiff  criticism 
everywhere  in  England,  and  perhaps  he  thought  he  would  try, 
even  thus  late,  to  follow  some  of  the  good  advice  he  had  been 
given.  "  Upon  Account  of  my  Friendship  for  him  [Cosby] ,"  the 
secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trade  was  about  this  time  writing 
to  Colden,  "  when  he  went  to  New  York,  I  desired  of  all  things 
that  He  would  create  an  intimate  Friendship  with  you,  because 
I  knew  he  had  much  to  expect  from  the  Friendship  of  a  Man, 
with  your  Knowledge  of  the  Nature  of  the  Government,  and  of 
the  Temper,  and  different  Inclinations  of  the  People  he  was  to 
govern.  As  I  judg'd  this,  to  be  the  most  effectual  Way  to 
prevent  Complaints,  I  wish  he  had  foUow'd  my  Advice,  because 
I  am  well  assur'd  you  would  have  led  him  into  no  Scrape. 

"A  Governor  has  at  first,  a  pretty  difficult  Lesson  to  learn,  and 
if  he  falls  into  right  Hands,  he  may  certainly  pave  the  Way  for 
a  peaceable,  &  an  agreable  Way  of  making  his  Fortune;  But 
otherwise,  he  opens  the  Door  to  Complaints,  &  it  may  be,  some 
cannot  be  easily  wiped  off."  Still  Cosby  had  gone  so  far  as  to 
make  out  an  indictment  of  this  desirable  friend,  the  article  thereof 
with  which  we  are  chiefly  concerned  accusing  him  of  taking 
fees  for  the  survey  of  land  grants.  But  as  his  office  was  of 
the  greatest  importance  to  the  government,  and  was  at  the  same 
time  unsalaried,  it  was  understood  that  the  compensation  with- 
out which  no  man  could  have  been  expected  to  perform  its 
duties  was  to  be  in  just  this  form,  and  Morris,  to  whom  Colden 


54  Cadwallader  Colden 

left  his  defence,  would  have  found  it  easy  to  sustain  this  point. 
The  fact  was,  he  said,  that  the  governor  found  the  surveyor 
general  too  honest.  Nevertheless,  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to 
see  how  Colden  reconciled  these  fairly  exorbitant  grants  to 
himself.  To  be  sure,  he  was  not  the  only  one  concerned,  and  it 
might  have  been  fooUsh  for  him  to  refuse  his  own  emolument 
and  the  aggrandizement  of  his  family  when  the  whole  council 
was  consenting  thereto.  It  is  true  also  that  the  grants  were 
often,  and  perhaps  always,  made  to  several  parties  in  the  name 
of  one,  but  this  was  after  all  rather  an  objection  than  a  justifica- 
tion, on  account  of  the  great  difficulties  already  experienced  with 
lands  held  in  common.  He  could,  however,  honestly  say  that 
he  had  paid  strict  regard  to  the  crown's  rights  by  exact  surveys 
and  accurate  registration,  and  to  the  Indians  by  insisting  on 
treating  them  with  the  most  punctihous  honour  at  a  time  when 
their  spoHation  was  considered  the  white  man's  right.  Nor 
did  he  forget  the  humble  settler,  and  in  October,  1734,  induced 
the  governor  and  Secretary  Clark  to  offer  one  hundred  thousand 
acres  to  the  first  Protestant  European  families  to  arrive  in  the 
province,  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  acres  to  a  family,  free  from 
all  charges  but  the  expense  of  the  survey. 

"A  certain  worthy  good  ffriend  of  y","  Horsmanden  in- 
formed him  later  in  the  month,  "in  conjunction  w*?  ye  Seer?" 
has  proposed  a  Scheme  for  Granting  away  all  Remaining 
vacant  Lands  in  Evans  Grant  &  in  order  to  make  it  goe  down 
the  better  some  of  the  Council  were  offer'd  to  be  Lett  in  for 
2000  ?  apiece,  and  tho'  I  am  not  well  pleased  to  see  it 
going  in  this  manner  Yet  I  could,  (as  I  otherwise  wo?)  have 
Refused  for  Several  Reasons.  The  Gov^  seeming  pleased  with 
the  thing  is  one  &  others  you  may  easily  guess  at.  .  .  .  But 
a  pet"?  has  been  presented  &  granted  S:  Warr*  of  Survey  ready 
to  Sign  &  Directed  to  yrself  w*''^  was  more  than  I  expected, 
But  I  am  in  hopes  the  Report  concerning  you  is  Groundless. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  55 

The  Bill  in  Chancery  I  shall  keep  in  my  hands  as  long  as  pos- 
sible tho'  I'm  teased  to  Death  abo*  it." 

This  bill  the  American  partners  had  been  subpoenaed  to 
answer  in  April ;  and  Colden  in  Ulster,  without  any  law  books, 
and  Alexander  and  Smith  in  New  York,  with  all  the  province 
afforded,  were  drawing  up  exceptions  to  that  very  court  in 
which  Colden  had  once  been  master  and  which  he  had  often 
warmly  championed.  "As  to  the  Oblong  Bill,  my  Dr*  was 
finished  before  X*mas;"  wrote  Horsmanden  early  in  1735,^ 
"but  Machiavall  &  I  disagreed  abo'  many  particulars  in  it 
wherefore  when  'twas  got  from  me,  it  was  thought  proper  to 
be  altered  &  new  molded  accd  to  his  own  Scheme,  in  such 
manner  that  it  was  not  thought  proper  to  Trust  me  with  a  sight 
of  it,  for  fear  I  sho?  have  Reasons  to  produce  Suff*  to  Convince 
others  concerned,  that  mine  was  rt  &  his  was  wrong,  where- 
fore according  to  his  usual  method  of  proceedings  recourse 
must  be  had  to  an  Indirect  way  of  compassing  his  Ends,  by 
procuring  a  meeting  of  all  Lawy"  concerned  &  so  to  have  a 
Cursory  Reading  of  the  Dr!  &  thrust  it  down  their  throats,  & 
extort  an  approbation,  &  it  happened  very  well  for  him  &  me ; 
th-  I  could  not  be  present  at  the  meeting,  w"^?  Spared  me  Some 
Trouble,  as  well  as  the  Necessity  of  Showing  Some  Resentm* 
from  such  ill  Treatm!  ffor  in  a  Regular  way  of  Business  most 
certainly  the  Dr!  Sho?  have  been  Returned  to  me,  with  Reasons 
in  Support  of  the  Alterations,  &  Information  by  whom  such 
Alterations  were  made,  &  in  point  of  Good  manners  my  Dr- 
Sho^  not  have  been  altered,  but  proposalls  have  been  upon 
Separate  paper  with  References  to  such  places  offered  to  be 
altered.  This  is  not  Ceremony  in  me,  but  the  Regular  method 
of  doing  Business;  however  it  is  engross'd  &  fyled,  without  my 
Seeing  it."  As  it  happened,  Horsmanden's  preparations,  as 
well  as  those  of  his  opponents,  went  for  nothing.     Cosby  flatly 

'  April  2. 


56  Cadwallader  Colden 

refused  to  consider  the  exceptions  and,  emphasizing  the  fact 
that  they  were  actually  presented  by  members  of  a  committee 
of  council  who  had  handed  in  a  report  upholding  Chancery 
only  eight  years  before,  pertinently  asked  what  sort  of  advice 
he  was  to  expect  from  them.  He  then  ordered  the  defendants 
to  appear  once  again  with  another  defence,  for  which  order  he 
shortly  received  the  warm  approbation  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
Its  secretary,  however,  was  greatly  disgusted.  "I  have  receiv'd 
yours,  of  the  1 2^^  of  June  last,  in  relation  to  the  difficulty  which 
has  lately  subsisted  between  Col:  Cosby  &  you,"  he  informed 
Colden,  "in  answer  to  one  that  I  had  wrote  to  you,  as  I  Uke- 
wise  had  done  to  him,  and  at  the  same  time  upon  that  Subject. 
By  what  you  have  wrote,  I  cannot  forbear  remarking  that  Col : 
Cosby,  has  had  so  much  regard,  for  what  I  had  recommended 
to  him,  as  to  take  the  first  Step,  towards  renewing  a  Friendship 
with  you,  and  I  am  inclined  to  beUeve,  that  my  Endeavours  for 
a  reunion,  between  you  two  might  have  succeeded,  had  you  not 
opposed  his  measures,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  holding  a 
Court  of  Chancery  at  New  York. 

"  Upon  this  Occasion  I  cannot  help  being  Surprized  that  you 
who  was  so  Strenuous  for  it  should  now  oppose  the  holding 
that  Court.  However  different  you  may  be  in  Opinion,  from 
what  you  then  were  of.  Col :  Cosby  will  certainly  stand  justifyed. 
In  having  pursued  the  directions  of  his  Commissions  and  Instruc- 
tions in  this  respect ;  This  Court  was  estabUshed  at  New  York, 
in  the  very  infancy  of  that  Colony  by  the  Crowns  undoubted 
Right  signifyed  to  the  then  Governor  under  the  Broad  Seal  of 
this  Kingdom:  Successively  confirmed  under  the  Broad  Seal 
in  every  Governors  Commission  that  has  been  appointed  since, 
and  which  must  therefore  consequently  be  deemed  an  essential 
part  of  the  Constitution  of  that  Province.  And  if  the  Assembly, 
will  but  consider  that  they  set  only  by  the  same  authority,  that 
Supports  the  Court  of  Chancery :  .  .  .  surely  they  would  not 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  57 

have  ventured,  to  oppose  the  one  since  at  the  same  time  they 
efifectually  strike  at  the  Foundation  of  the  Other. 

"  I  have  in  this  manner  endeavour'd  to  set  the  Aflfair  of  the 
Court  of  Chancery  in  its  true  hght :  and  if  I  am  happy  enough 
to  have  said  anything  that  may  be  convincing,  I  am  the  rather 
pleased  because  as  your  difference  with  Col:  Cosby,  relates 
chiefly  to  his  EstabHshing  that  Court,  this  may  tend  to  the 
renewing  of  your  Friendship,  To  which  good  end,  I  hope  slight 
punctilios  will  never  be  a  hindrance."  The  secretary's  sug- 
gestions came  too  late.  When  they  arrived  in  America  Cosby 
had  been  overtaken  by  his  last  illness  and  had  put  the  finishing 
touch  to  the  controversies  of  his  administration  by  suspending  his 
natural  successor,  Rip  Van  Dam.  "How  unhappy  a  Circum- 
stance it  would  be,  if  at  this  Juncture  it  should  please  God  to 
take  him  from  us !  "  sneered  Horsmanden,  "  Jerry,  The  Agent 
has  had  300;^  sterUng  Bills  protested  So  that  the  Oblong  aff^ 
seems  at  present  to  be  in  Suspense.  No  Soul  here  has  heard 
a  word  from  F.  Harison  (as  'tis  said)  not  so  much  as  his  wife 
or  ffamily:  .  .  .  Don't  be  Surpriz'd  if  the  next  news  is  that 
he  's  turned  Monk  in  a  Monastery  abroad  for  the  Sake  of  Good 
Living.  ...  G:  Clerk  prays  heartily  &  hopes  in  God  the 
Govf  will  do  well."  And  again:  "The  Govf  still  continues  in 
a  dangerous  &  almost  desperate  condition  ...  he  has  re- 
turns of  Coughfing  fits,  .  .  .  and  his  fitts  of  this  kind  often 
throw  him  into  DiHriums,  in  w*"?  it  is  said  he  has  sometimes 
talkt  most  Sensibly,  w*'?,  tho'  a  Seeming  paradox,  is  capable 
of  Explanation  for  being  a  Contradiction :  ffor  it  is  whisper'd 
that  he  upbraided  Madams  Conduct  in  Such  Lively  Colours 
that  She  fell  into  a  Swoon :  In  Short,  I  saw  her  a  few  days  ago, 
&  she  seems  to  give  so  much  Credit  to  Dr.  Standbufi's  (the 
most  discouraging  of  the  three  Doctors  attending  the  governor) 
opinion  that  she  talkt  in  a  manner  dispairing  of  his  Recovery. 
I    find  the  new  president    pays   great    deference  to   the    last 


58  Cadwallader  C olden 

mentioned  D"  Judgm*  &  is  not  unwilling  to  believe  him 
prophetical. 

"As  to  the  pacquet,  it  has  been  sometime  since  open 'd,  & 
brought  forth  a  letter  from  the  Board  of  Trade,  It  was  Suppos'd, 
The  Governess  had  peep'd  into  it,  long  before  She  own'd  it  to 
have  been  opened  before  The  Gov^ ;  ffor  it  was  sometime  before 
reported  from  her  (as  Suppos'd)  That  V.  Dam  &  Alexander 
were  out  of  the  Council,  &  that  The  Mandamus  for  swearing 
in  Moor  &  Richard  were  in  the  pacquet.  But  the  Burthen 
of  the  pacquet  appear 'd  to  be  a  Letter  from  three  L*^-^  of  Trade 
Intimating  That  they  had  Recommended  the  above  to  be  Dis- 
placed from  the  Council  &  the  others  in  their  Room,  This  the 
Novices  in  polUticks  took  to  be  The  unum  necessarium,  w*'? 
they  were  afterwds  undeceiv'd  in,  however  this  was  shown  about 
to  a  great  many  &  amongst  the  rest  I  happen 'd  of  a  Sight  of 
it,  &  it  has  something  in  it  of  the  Chancery  upholding  the 
Jurisdiction  as  formerly  &  approving  The  Conduct  in  not 
suffering  the  Exceptions  to  be  argued  in  The  Oblong  Affair; 
w*"-**  Since  I  have  mentioned  I  may  Observe  to  y°  Remains  at 
present  in  suspence  for  want  of  Cash." 

Another  letter  urging  Colden  to  hurry  up  several  patents,  in 
which  the  forehanded  Cosby  family  were  interested,  so  that  they 
could  be  registered  while  its  head  was  still  living,  was  soon 
followed  by  news  of  his  death.  Clarke  was  now  chief  of  the 
province,  and  Alexander  and  Morris  were  in  a  far  worse  posi- 
tion than  before.  Yet  though  his  friendship  for  these  men  was 
as  strong  as  ever,  Colden  soon  managed  so  to  ingratiate  himself 
with  his  new  superior  that  outwardly  at  least  they  worked  in 
perfect  harmony.  In  a  way  this  was  not  hard  to  understand. 
Since  the  false  report  of  the  suspension  Colden  had  been  so 
absorbed  by  the  actual  labour  of  his  office,  fairly  Hving  in  the 
Mohawk  wilderness  or  on  the  outermost  reaches  of  Ulster, 
Orange,  and  Dutchess,  where  the  demand  for  land  was  greatest, 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  59 

that  he  had  had  little  time  or  attention  to  give  to  party  bicker- 
ings, while  he  had  presumably  satisfied  even  Cosby  with  the 
favours  he  showed  him.  Then,  too,  Clarke  was  a  man  of  fine 
powers,  and  commanded  and  understood  the  situation  as  neither 
Montgomerie  nor  Cosby  could  possibly  have  done,  and  even  if 
he  was  as  personally  grasping  as  his  predecessor  he  had  the 
sense  to  perceive  that  his  interests  were  not  ahen  to  the  king's, 
his  master's.  He  was,  moreover,  as  interested  as  Colden  him- 
self in  the  development  of  the  New  York  frontier,  and  claimed 
the  credit  for  suggesting  to  Cosby  that  he  advertise  in  Dublin 
and  Amsterdam  the  inducements  he  offered  to  the  Protestant 
settlers.  He  was  also  fired  with  a  desire  to  press  back  the 
advancing  French,  and  had  many  schemes  to  that  end.  With 
such  hkeness  of  aim  the  two  men  were  almost  sure  to  come 
together  even  if  there  were  no  question  of  self-interest.  It  was 
long  since  Colden  had  worked  with  a  governor  who  understood 
what  he  was  doing  without  being  told,  and  he  appreciated  it. 

One  of  the  first  achievements  of  the  new  administration  was 
the  suppression  of  the  petition  for  a  tract  six  miles  square  in 
the  Mohawk  Valley,  made  to  the  king  in  England  by  one  of 
the  Livingstons  and  a  Mr.  Storke.  Mr.  Livingston  probably 
had  as  complete  a  knowledge  of  the  lands  of  his  province  as 
any  man  not  professionally  interested;  but  he  pretended  un- 
certainty as  to  this  particular  tract,  and  Secretary  Popple  wrote 
asking  whether  it  had  ever  been  granted,  and  particularly 
whether  it  included  the  land  for  which  the  Albanians  had 
fraudulently  obtained  a  deed  from  the  Mohawks  in  Mont- 
gomerie's  day.  Fortified  by  the  opinion  of  the  Albany  com- 
mon council  and  that  of  the  Indian  commissioners,  Clarke  * 
promptly  wrote  that  to  grant  a  patent  for  land  that  had  not 
yet  been  purchased  would  rouse  the  Indians.  Moreover,  as  no 
quit-rents  were  to  be  exacted  for  this  patent  until  it  became 

*  June  18,  1736. 


6o  Cadwallader  Colden 

self-supporting,  he  could  not  imagine  if  such  terms  were  once 
given  who  would  ever  take  patents  on  any  other.  But  it  was 
not  until  Colden  had  completed  his  survey  of  the  matter  that  the 
governor  could  write  with  authority.^  According  to  the  map  on 
which  the  petition  was  based,  Colden  had  found  one  of  the  real 
bounds  omitted,  and  estimated  that  the  tract  in  its  true  limits 
extended  for  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  along  the  river.  In- 
deed, so  much  of  its  alleged  extent  was  already  granted  that 
it  was  evident  that  no  one  would  ever  pay  half  the  cost  of  an 
English  grant  for  what  was  left.  Even  then  it  would  contain 
at  least  thirty  miles  already  granted.  In  short,  land  was  so 
cheap,  so  easy  to  get  in  the  colony,  that  an  attempt  to  secure  it 
in  England  clearly  showed  some  private  view  which  demanded 
a  secrecy  impossible  at  close  range.  Above  all,  the  custom  of 
English  patents  was  pernicious  in  the  extreme,  as  no  one  could 
tell  at  any  time  exactly  where  he  stood. 

The  English  government  did  not  take  his  argument  so  well 
to  heart  as  never  to  run  the  risk  of  again  making  a  similar  mis- 
take ;  but  another  reform,  brought  about  indirectly  by  Livingston, 
proved  more  lasting.  On  one  of  his  surveying  expeditions  to 
the  Mohawk  Valley,  Colden  found  the  Indians  greatly  disturbed. 
He  tried  to  discover  the  cause,  but  several  interviews  with  lead- 
ing sachems  failed  to  elicit  any  definite  information,  though 
they  talked  much  and  vehemently  of  some  fraudulent  land 
deal.  At  last  Colden  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  inter- 
preters were  playing  him  false,  and  the  Indians  being  impressed 
in  like  manner,  they  managed  by  certain  signs  to  make  him 
understand  that  some  persons  had  by  a  trick  obtained  a  deed 
of  the  very  land  on  which  they  lived.  He  could  get  no  further 
particulars,  but  on  his  return  he  memorialized  the  governor  in 
council,  with  the  result  that  a  new  regulation  was  formulated 
which  made  it  practically  impossible  to  purchase  land  from  the 
Indians  otherwise  than  honestly. 

1  May  28,  1736. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  6i 

In  the  land  office,  affairs  in  Clarke's  administration  proceeded 
much  as  they  had  done  in  Cosby's.  The  same  big  numbers, 
the  same  steady  activity,  prevailed,  and  the  only  difference  was 
that  Clarke's  name  never  appeared  as  Cosby's  had  done.  He 
must  already  have  had  as  much  land  in  his  own  right  as  even 
he  wanted  and  could  afford  to  trust  to  his  perquisites.  Whether 
Cosby  or  Clarke  were  governor,  also,  Horsmanden's  schemes 
were  the  same,  and  in  July,  1736,  he  wrote  accepting  some  offer 
of  assistance  Colden  had  made  him  and  asking  him  to  divide 
two  thousand  acres  into  thirteen  parts. 

"I  own  it  Requires  a  very  great  appology,  for  requesting  you 
to  enter  upon  so  Troublesome  a  Jobb,  but  I  flatter  myself  from 
the  Instances  of  your  Friendship  &  Good  IncUnations  tow*^ 
me  from  the  first  of  Our  acquaintance  That  I  may  be  excused. 
.  .  .  Captn  Warren  has  made  a  very  Great  Purchase  of  M" 
Cosby  at  Boston  13,000?  of  the  GoV'  Land  ...  for  iiO;^.  How 
she  became  so  Infatuated  I  know  not,  .  .  .  but  so  it  is.  Which 
being  done  I  suppose  The  Capt"  will  have  no  thought  at 
present  abo*  getting  any  other  Tract,  &  I  understood  as 
much  from  the  Chief  Justice  the  other  day  talking  upon  This 
Subject. 

"  Therefore  if  you  are  persuaded  That  The  Residue  of  the 
Indian  Purchase  at  Connajohaire  is  good  Land,  I  should  be 
glad  if  I  CO?  have  a  good  Slice  with  yourself  &  other  ffriends, 
ffor  as  Lands  are  the  best  View  I  have  of  making  money  now,  I 
would  wilhngly  make  the  proper  use  of  the  presidents  ffriend- 
ship.  .  .  .  M"  Cosby  reed  Enghsh  Lres  [Letters]  at  Boston, 
whereby  we  hear  That  Morris  is  out  of  all  hopes  as  to  his  Sohcita- 
tions  That  those  Great  men  who  were  his  patrons  before  are 
now  convinced  That  his  Complaints  proceeded  Rather  from 
Spleen  &  Malice  than  anything  else."  And  again  in  December 
he  writes:  "Zenger  is  perfectly  silent  as  to  polUticks,  .  .  .  and 
Old  Morris  is  retired  to  Hell  Gate,  ...  &  says  the  Devil  may 


62  .  Cadwallader  Colden 

take  'em  all  but  if  his  natural  disposition  will  let  him  be  at 
rest,  I  am  mistaken  in  the  Man. 

"As  to  anything  you  can  Serve  me  in  abo*  Lands,  I  must  rely 
entirely  upon  your  flFriendship  &  generosity,  it  is  not  in  my 
way  to  find  out  such  Land  as  will  answer  my  present  purpose 
to  get  a  Grant  of.  If  you  can  serve  me  in  that  respect  in  the 
Spring,  you'l  lay  a  very  great  Obhgation  upon  me  &  now  I 
wish  I  could  come  &  have  a  hearty  Laugh  with  y°  at  the  ColP 
Returne." 

Absorbed  as  he  must  have  been  by  the  stirring  events  of  the 
first  months  of  his  administration,  Clarke  managed  to  keep  in 
touch  with  its  smallest  details.  For  instance,  in  writing  of  a  Mr. 
Hey  ward,  an  assistant  of  Colden 's,  he  says  that  he  seems  "to 
be  pretty  well  acquainted  with  the  places  that  he  thinks  will 
ascertain  the  bounds  of  Evans's  Grant  and  to  encourage  him 
I  promised  the  Reward  you  mention,  .  .  .  Blagg  came  w*^ 
him  who  was  about  to  make  Some  overtures  as  I  apprehended 
on  the  foot  of  Hey  wood's  discoveries,  but  I  stopt  him  by  telling 
him  that  you  having  wrote  me  about  those  Lands  I  could  say 
nothing  to  him ;  before  Heywood  came  to  me  Noxon  was  with 
me  telhng  me  that  there  was  a  friend  of  his  in  Town  who  had 
made  some  discoveries  wherein  the  Northwest  line  might  w*^ 
certainty  be  finished,  and  proposed  a  grant  for  himself  his 
friend  &  me.  I  excused  myself  and  told  him  whoever  expected 
a  Grant  must  be  at  the  Charge  of  finishing  that  fine,  this  he 
said  he  and  his  friend  would  do,  whom  I  then  and  not  before 
understood  to  be  this  Heywood,  who  he  told  me  had  a  letter 
from  you  to  me:  But  ...  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  for 
Speaking  with  you  or  of  hearing  from  you  before  anything  be 
done;  If  there  be  no  need  of  running  that  Nwest  line  further 
he  can  have  no  place  to  ask  for  a  Grant  from  what  I  said  to 
him;  Had  Heywood  been  w*?  me  first,  I  could  have  stopt  his 
mouth  as  I  did    Blaggs,  but  it  may  be  Noxon  concerted  W'^ 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  63 

Heywood,  who  was  the  Bearer  of  this  and  of  the  Lycence  wherein 
I  wish  you  Success  ...  I  choose  as  farr  as  I  can  to  give  every 
one  Satisfaction." 

As  time  went  on  Clarke  gained  fair  control  of  the  turbulent, 
the  sullen,  and  the  merely  critical  who  had  contested  or  dis- 
approved his  promotion;  but  his  position  never  became  a 
sinecure,  and  he  realized  that  to  relax  his  hold  for  an  instant 
would  be  disastrous.  To  an  extent  Golden  was  associated  in 
his  policies  and  schemes,  they  shared  many  of  the  same  enmi- 
ties, and,  as  in  the  affair  with  Laughhn  Campbell,  mutual 
loyalty  was  a  necessity.  Yet,  somehow,  Colden  never  felt  sure 
of  Clarke,  and  years  after  his  departure  from  the  colony  be- 
lieved the  former  heutenant-governor  to  be  injuring  him  abroad. 
He  had  therefore  tried  to  be  not  too  deeply  concerned  in  the 
poUtical  game,  but  even  so  the  years  of  that  administration 
proved  full  of  occupation  for  him.  Not  only  were  his  agricul- 
tural experiments  more  absorbing  than  ever,  not  only  had  he 
never  been  so  interested  in  scientific  research  and  intellectual 
projects  of  various  sorts,  but  the  work  of  his  office  had  never 
been  more  exacting.  Clarke's  determination  to  turn  the  tide 
of  settlement  toward  New  York  ;  to  keep  the  inhabitants 
already  within  her  borders  contented  and  happy  ;  and  to 
prove  that  she  had  great  natural  advantages  over  Pennsyl- 
vania —  which  had  become  the  colony  most  attractive  to  the 
emigrant  —  was  partially  successful.  Rents  went  up,  building 
commenced  again,  and  every  one  wanted  land.  But  this 
desire  was  so  far  from  being  definite  that  the  would-be  pro- 
prietors rarely  had  any  particular  land  in  view  and  Colden 
was  in  constant  receipt  of  letters  such  as  this:  "Perhaps  you 
will  be  surprised  when  I  tell  you  that  I  have  intentions  of  be- 
coming a  petitioner  for  Land  in  the  Mohawks  country  but  its 
really  true,  the  Govr  having  been  so  good  [as]  to  promis  me  and 
some  of  his  children  a  grant  if  we  can  find  out  that  which  is 


64  Cadwallader  Colden 

worth  patenting,  here  is  six  of  us  that  intend  to  which  with 
you  or  any  one  of  your  family  whom  you  will  please  to  name 
will  require  14,000  acres  at  least.  The  great  difficulty  is  how 
to  find  good  land  which  is  vacant  which  difficulty  no  one  can 
surmount  but  yourself,  and  as  you  are  going  to  that  Country 
its  possible  you  may  meet  with  that  which  is  good,  which  if 
you  can  do  and  make  a  purchase  of  it  from  the  Indians  to  be 
paid  upon  the  obtaining  a  Lycence  for  that  purpose  which  we 
shall  do  upon  Notice  we  shall  readily  Comply  with  such  agree- 
ment as  you  think  fitt  to  make  on  our  behalf."  Betty  Colden 
doubtless  brought  Peter  Delancey  an  excellent  dowry  of  broad 
acres,  though  large  frontier  estates  were  not  likely  to  yield 
quick  returns  or  prove  readily  convertible  assets. 

Others  of  his  correspondents  merely  wished  advice  or  in- 
formation or  even  a  map  of  their  land.  "I  observed  hereto- 
fore," wrote  James  Alexander,  after  a  request  of  this  last  sort 
had  been  made  and  granted,  "that  there  was  very  bare  Measure 
in  my  patent  so  bare  that  I  found  it  would  bee  Deficient  iiy^^g- 
acres  Supposeing  the  Lines  held  out  their  Lengths,  &  Suppose- 
ing  no  allowance  for  highways.  .  .  .  The  Error  I  fancy  must 
arise  by  John  McNeals  S  E  Comer,  ...  I  should  be  glad  of 
your  thoughts  on  this  head  &  how  the  matter  may  be  rectified 
that  justice  may  be  done  to  every  one.  .  .  .  You  say  right 
that  what  was  called  the  Country  party  is  very  weak  in  this 
Assembly,"  he  added,  "but  I  hope  they'll  study  the  interest 
of  the  country  and  if  that  they  do  to  the  best  of  their  ability, 
Its  very  Indifferent  of  what  party  they  have  been." 

In  this  administration  also  Colden,  as  a  member  of  the  com- 
missions appointed  to  do  the  work  in  either  case,  assisted  in 
the  settlement  of  two  important  boundaries.  In  1737  the  line 
between  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  was  fixed,  and 
in  1 741  the  bounds  of  Rhode  Island  were  first  run  and  then 
pubhshed  at  Providence,  the  finding  of  the  commission  being 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  65 

later  confirmed  by  the  king  and  council.  Long  absences  such 
as  these  and  the  increasing  detail  of  his  work  had  forced  Colden 
to  add  to  the  number  of  his  deputies ;  who,  however,  increased 
rather  than  relieved  his  anxiety,  for  he  found  it  hard  to  secure 
the  perfection  or  even  the  honesty  he  demanded.  But  though 
he  was  a  severe  master  and  quick  to  express  his  disapproval, 
his  employees  were  apparently  glad  to  serve  him,  and  if  they 
disputed  the  justice  of  a  rebuke,  only  did  so  in  order  to  convince 
him  that  it  was  ill  placed  and  that  they  were  his  faithful  servants. 
Still  he  was  not  perfect  himself,  and  his  activity  along  all  these 
lines  was  not  sufficient  excuse  for  one  piece  of  abject  careless- 
ness, which  only  affords  another  illustration  of  the  trouble  his 
friends  always  seemed  to  take  in  his  affairs.  In  December, 
1737,  the  elder  Smith,  who,  with  Alexander,  had  managed  the 
affair  of  the  oblong,  wrote  to  Colden  that  the  accounts  of  the 
partners  had  been  made  up,  teUing  him  his  share  and  asking 
prompt  payment  in  order  to  save  as  much  interest  as  possible. 
Just  two  years  later  Joseph  Murray,  who  had  argued  the  case 
in  court,  wrote  the  partners  that  he  had  received  as  yet  only 
his  retaining  fee,  though  besides  his  legal  services  he  had  loaned 
the  syndicate  considerable  sums.  He  had  therefore  filed  a  suit 
against  them  in  the  Supreme  Court,  which  was  to  come  on  in 
the  January  term.  This  letter  Smith  and  Alexander  enclosed 
to  Colden,  recalling  Smith's  letter  of  two  years  before.  They 
could  not,  they  said,  blame  Mr.  Murray,  nor  should  Colden 
blame  them  for  asking  him  to  say  whether  he  would  pay  the 
balance  of  his  share  with  interest  and  his  share  of  the  costs  of 
Murray's  suit ;  or  whether  he  would  give  them  an  I.  O.  U.  for 
the  same ;  or  whether,  if  he  was  not  satisfied  of  the  justice  of  the 
claim,  he  would  send  them  a  power  of  attorney.  If  he  would 
choose  none  of  these  lines  of  action,  they  notified  him,  they 
would  issue  process  against  every  partner  to  compel  payment.* 

^  Colden  Mss.,  1 737-1 747,  December,  1741. 
F 


66  Cadwallader  Colden 

To  which  extraordinary  forbearance  Colden  replied  that  he 
owned  his  negligence  in  not  looking  over  the  accounts  when  in 
town,  that  he  had  no  objection  to  paying  his  share,  but  that 
he  did  wish  first  to  assure  himself  of  its  accuracy,  which  he 
should  do  on  his  first  visit  to  the  city.  He,  moreover,  hoped 
that  they  would  not  put  those  wilUng  to  pay  to  any  unnecessary 
charge  by  a  prosecution,  adding  that  while  he  was  satisfied  of 
the  necessity  of  Murray's  suit  for  his  debt,  he  was  ashamed 
that  he  should  have  to  sue  for  his  fees  and  consequently  wished 
him  to  delay  action  in  order  that  the  partners  might  reward 
him  in  proportion  to  their  gratitude.  Yet  Alexander  and  Smith 
were  actually  obliged  to  write  again  in  December,  1741,  four 
years  after  their  first  letter,  that  whereas  Murray  had  delayed 
the  suit  against  them  because  of  their  promise  to  pay  interest 
at  reasonable  times,  Colden 's  continued  failure  to  do  his  part 
was  about  to  precipitate  another  action,  for  which,  again,  Murray 
could  not  be  blamed.  "We  have  often  told  you  and  you  well 
know,"  they  said,^  "that  M'  Kennedy  &  Coll  Mathews  De- 
pend upon  what  you  do  and  that  we  cannot  without  the  greatest 
Reluctance  &  necessity  take  process  against  either  of  you  and 
to  take  the  process  agreed  upon  by  the  articles  of  agreement 
against  the  Rest  &  not  ag  you  would  be  said  to  look  Hke  par- 
tiaUty  wherefore  we  Begg  you  to  consider  That  this  our  regard 
for  you  Kennedy  &  Mathews  tyes  our  hands  .  .  .  and  ...  we 
must  either  pay  three  or  four  Hundred  pounds  out  of  our  pocketts 
or  take  the  Steps  the  Law  allows  and  which  had  it  not  been  for 
the  reason  before  we  should  three  years  ago  have  done  and  are 
Resolved  this  Winter  to  do  upon  your  answer  to  this  or  a  Reason- 
able time  &  opportunity  of  answer."  To  this  Colden  in  turn 
repHed  that  since  the  preceding  spring  his  absence  in  New 
England,  sickness  in  his  family,  and  a  contagious  disease  in  the 
neighbourhood  must  be  his  excuse,  but  that  for  the  rest  of  the 

*  December,  1741. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  67 

time  he  had  none  to  offer.  "I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
and  Mr.  Smith,"  he  went  on/  "for  the  regard  you  show  me  but 
as  I  have  not  time  now  so  much  as  to  look  into  the  accounts 
which  I  formerly  had  &  which  I  suspect  differ  from  the  enclosed 
&  as  I  have  no  certain  conveyance  even  of  this  to  you  any  delay 
now  given  to  what  you  expect  I  hope  will  not  be  attributed  to 
neghgence  or  willfull  delay  I  hereby  however  promise  to  pay 
to  you  or  Mr.  Smith  the  ballance  due  by  me  on  the  account  of 
the  Equivalent  lands  with  Interest  from  the  first  of  this  month 
on  the  terms  fixed  in  your  joint  letter  of  this  month  within  a 
year  after  the  date  of  this.  This  I  hope  will  be  sufficient  to 
enable  you  to  proceed  against  the  others  without  any  Impu- 
tation of  partiaHty."  In  May,  1742,  however.  Golden  finally  set- 
tled his  accounts,  though,  by  sending  in  a  counter  bill  by  which 
he  charged  for  his  own  services  and  for  interest  thereon,  he 
reduced  his  debt  to  one-fourth  its  original  amount. 

By  the  arrival  of  George  CUnton  in  1743,  the  prospects  of 
the  surveyor  general,  which  had  on  the  whole  been  more  than 
fair  under  the  Clarke  regime,  darkened  suddenly,  for  the  new 
governor  at  once  attached  himself  to  the  Delanceys,  with  whom 
Clarke  had  been  at  odds  and  between  whom  and  Colden,  despite 
a  family  connection,  no  love  had  ever  been  lost.  Out  of  politics 
for  the  time  being,  the  outbreak  of  the  French  war  soon  put 
an  absolute  check  on  land  speculation  and  investment,  and  for 
many  months  the  only  real  satisfaction  of  an  official  nature 
that  Colden  enjoyed  came  to  him  when  the  Mohawks  openly 
demanded  that  Chancellor  Livingston's  patent  for  a  large 
tract  of  land,  which  they  said  he  had  never  paid  for,  be  revoked. 
"It  is  a  vile  family,"  said  Clinton,  thus  confirming  many  a 
warning.  Unfortunately  for  Colden,  his  time  of  retirement 
was  brief.  After  a  while,  owing  to  the  desertion  of  the  governor's 
first  advisers,  he  began  to  receive  advances  from  CUnton,  who, 

^  December  19,  1741. 


68  Cadwallader  Colden 

indeed,  continued  to  make  them  until  he  succeeded  in  winning 
a  new  mentor.  But,  though  Colden  had  yielded  more  from  duty 
than  inclination,  or  at  least  thought  that  he  had,  once  in  the 
toils  he  determined  to  make  the  best  possible  use  of  that  which 
fate  had  sent  him.  Once  again,  this  time  through  Clinton's 
pen,*  he  informed  the  government  that  the  provincial  officials 
should  have  a  safe  salary;  that  the  quit-rents  as  due  at  the 
rate  of  £2  65.  per  one  hundred  acres  would  yield  £4000 
annually;  and  that  this  was  more  than  the  assembly  had  ever 
granted.  The  abuses  arising  out  of  the  partial  construction  of 
the  regulations  made  in  regard  to  the  granting  and  the  holding 
of  land  had  improved  not  at  all  since  the  days  of  his  young  man- 
hood, and  to  this  fact  Colden  attributed  the  conditions  already 
so  deplored  by  Clarke.  With  all  her  superior  commercial  and 
physical  advantages.  New  York  was  undoubtedly  being  pro- 
portionally outstripped  in  population  and  prosperity  by  her 
neighbours.  But,  Colden  later  wrote  to  Shirley,  it  no  longer 
seemed  possible  to  institute  a  reform  save  by  act  of  Parliament 
only.^  A  stricter  administration  of  the  Chancery  Court,  for 
instance,  though  apparently  the  true  solution  of  the  difficulty, 
would  prove  none  at  all.  The  governor  was  also  chancellor, 
and  could  never  withstand  the  storm  of  accusations  of  self- 
interest  and  unfair  dealing  which  would  break  out  at  the  slightest 
attempt  to  enforce  his  instructions.  Equally  fatal  would  be  his 
(Colden 's)  own  advocacy  of  any  measure,  so  great  had  been  his 
unpopularity  ever  since  the  defeat  of  the  Partition  Act  of  1726, 
brought  about,  as  it  had  been,  by  his  influence. 

Perhaps  for  this  reason,  as  soon  as  peace  became  a  fact 
Colden  began  through  the  devoted  Alexander  to  take  steps 
toward  insuring  himself  a  life  tenure  of  his  office  by  the  grant 
of  a  commission  during  good  behaviour,  planning  also  to  ask  its 

»  New  York  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  378-380. 
'  July  25,  1749,  Colden  Mss.,  1747-1754. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  69 

reversion  for  his  son,  who  was  in  the  meantime  to  share  in  its 
execution  but  not  in  its  profits  unless  by  Golden 's  gift.     It  was 
two  years,  however,  before  Alexander  felt  that  the  right  moment 
for  his  mission  had  come,  and  it  was  January,  1751,  when  the 
commission  to  the  desired  efifect  was  obtained.*     By  this  time 
the  land  office  was  fairly  active  again,  and  the  governor's  family 
were  taking  care  that  they  should  have  something  to  carry  home 
with  them.     Already  vaguely  hurt  by  what  seemed  indiflference 
on  the  part  of  his  chief  ally,  Chnton  felt  that  Golden  was  not 
assisting  him  in  this  laudable  endeavour  as  he  should.     "His 
Excellency  being  very  busy  in  answering  Letters  reed  by  Dean 
who  arrived  Wednesday  has  order'd  me  to  acquaint  you  that 
as  he  shall  always  have  a  great  Value  for  those  Gentlemen  that 
stood  firmly  to  him,  in  opposition  against  the  vile  Faction  &  will 
continue  so  to  do  them  Services  as  long  as  it  is  in  his  power. 
And  as  Mr   Holland  has  been  remarkable  that  way,    &  has 
lately  lost  a  Post,  that  he  gave  him,  which  loss  his  Ex"^  would 
if  possible  make  up  to  him  if  he  could  so  you  will  observe 
enclosed  is  an  Offer  to  him,  which  may  turn  out  to  his  advantage, 
for  which  reason  His  Excellency  desires  you  would  immediately 
answer  that  part  of  it  which  is  referred  in  it  to  you.  .  .  .     Please 
to  excuse  blotts  &  Erasings  for  I  have  not  time  to  write  it  over 
again.  .  .  .    Inclosed  is  a  Draught  of  the  vacant  Land  at 
Schoharie  which  please  to  examine  with  other  draughts  of 
patented  Land   &  return  it  again  to  his  Excellency." 

This  was  followed  the  next  day  by  a  letter  from  Alexander. 
"Doctor  Ayscough  acquainted  me  this  morning  that  his  Ex^ 
Supped  abroad  last  night  with  Some  Gen!  that  he  was  appre- 
hensive had  used  insinuations  with  His  Excellency  to  your 
prejudice.  That  his  Ex^  rested  ill  last  night  and  this  morning 
expressed  to  him  Some  of  what  he  believed  were  those  insinua- 
tions. 

*  Records  of  the  Executive  CouncU. 


yo  Cadwallader  Colden 

"After  the  Doctor's  acquainting  me  that  in  General  you 
delayed  the  patents  that  you  might  have  the  fees  of  them  &c  I 
told  him  there  was  no  giveing  answers  to  Generals  and  begged 
he  would  set  down  particulars  &  I  could  Communicate  to  you 
not  doubting  you  would  give  a  Satisfactory  Answer  to  such 
particulars. 

"Thereon  the  Doctor  wrote  the  above  notes  and  promised  to 
bring  me  a  list  of  the  patents  ordered  therein  pointing  out  which 
of  them  lay  at  your  door  to  Expedite." 

According  to  these  notes  Colden  had  delayed  Colonel  John- 
son's grant  for  the  want  of  a  quadrant;  had  also  delayed 
Mayor  Holland's  because  of  some  defect  in  order  to  supply 
which  it  had  been  sent  up  to  Albany;  had  neglected  to 
return  the  survey  of  several  other  patents;  and  had  received 
visits  from  Livingston  and  Beekman.  Besides  this  list  of 
crimes,  the  notes  requested  that  Colden  report  on  Livingston's 
petition  so  that  CHnton  could  answer  the  ministry  if  asked 
about  it,  while  he  was  to  leave  the  details  of  the  contract  by 
which  he  was  to  supply  firewood  and  candles  for  the  fort  gar- 
rison entirely  to  Alexander.  "As  to  Livingston's  being  with 
you,"  Alexander  proceeded,  "I  told  the  Doctor  that  it  was  on 
my  recommendation,  in  order  to  advise  with  you,  and  have 
your  assistance.  .  .  .  That  Beekman  had  Employed  your 
Son  Cadwallader  to  make  Some  Surveys  for  him  concerning 
Causes  that  he  has  depending  at  Law,  And  I  Supposed  that  was 
what  brought  him  to  your  house.  That  I  was  concerned  in  those 
causes  against  Beekman,  but  was  not  in  the  Least  jealous  for 
that  reason.  .  .  .  Doctor  Ascough  has  read  so  far  &  approves 
it,  &  gives  his  hearty  Comphments  to  you."  "His  Excellency 
may  depend  on  my  doing  everything  in  my  power  to  serve  his 
friends,"  Colden  promptly  repUed,  "  &  that  I  shall  hkewise 
have  a  particular  pleasure  in  obhging  Mr  Holland.  It  is 
impossible  for  me  to  know  whether  the  Map  of  the  Survey 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  71 

inclosed  in  yours  to  me  be  true  or  not  because  it  appears  from 
the  face  of  it  that  there  must  be  an  error  either  in  it  or  on  the 
Surveys  of  the  patented  lands.  By  the  Map  which  you  send 
me  the  Vacancy  amounts  to  887  &  270  acres  in  the  whole  to 
1 1 57  Acres.  But  if  the  Surveys  of  the  patented  land  be  right 
the  Vacancy  amounts  to  above  1500  acres.  As  in  your  letter 
you  mention  only  the  first  Quantity  Therefore  I  think  it  most 
prudent  to  Petition  for  the  Vacant  Land  without  mentioning 
the  Quantity  but  any  Quantity  which  shall  be  found  vacant 
not  exceeding  two  thousand  Acres.  The  great  Patent  at  Scohary 
to  Myndert  Schuyler  was  granted  before  I  was  in  the  office  & 
I  have  no  register  of  that  Survey  &  consequently  cannot  ex- 
amine this  Map  with  it.  When  the  Petition  shall  be  made  & 
granted  I  cannot  return  the  Survey  to  the  office  till  a  Survey  be 
made  of  the  Patented  lands  in  order  to  discover  what  Vacancy 
remains  for  I  cannot  be  warranted  by  trusting  to  a  private 
Survey  don  I  know  not  how  or  by  whom." 

"I  must  say  I  was  in  hopes  from  the  long  knowledge  his 
ExcelF  has  had  of  me,"  he  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  Alexander, 
"  &  in  difficult  times  that  he  could  not  have  entertained  any 
Jealousies  that  I  would  wilhngly  do  anything  to  his  prejudice. 
I  still  hope  that  upon  his  ExcelF*  dehberately  reflecting  on 
my  past  Conduct  he  vdll  still  Continue  in  the  opinion  that  I 
cannot  be  guilty  of  anything  ungratefull  towards  him.  If  my 
past  conduct  cannot  clear  me  from  any  Jealousy  of  that  kind  I 
know  not  what  can. 

"I  defy  any  man  to  shew  that  I  have  in  any  shape  put  any 
the  least  delay  to  the  Granting  of  Lands  surveyed  as  the  only 
appearance  of  delay  which  I  think  can  be  pretended  may  be 
with  regard  to  a  patent  of  Lands  in  the  Mohawks  Country  in 
which  the  mayor  is  concerned,  I  must  beg  your  patience  in 
being  very  particular  on  that  head.  The  License  of  purchase 
requires  that  the  lands  be  surveyed  before  the  conveyance  is 


72       •  Cadwallader  C  olden 

made  from  the  Indians  That  the  Boundaries  as  actually  sur- 
veyed in  presence  of  the  Indians  be  inserted  in  the  Deed  that 
the  Surveyor  certify  on  the  back  that  he  had  surveyed  the  land 
according  to  the  boundaries  inserted  in  the  Deed  and  he  and  a 
Justice  of  Peace  shall  likewise  certify  that  they  saw  the  con- 
sideration money  paid  to  the  Indians.  This  has  been  the  con- 
stant practice  for  fifteen  years  past  as  will  appear  by  the  pur- 
chases in  the  Secretaries  office.  In  order  to  obhge  the  Mayor  I 
gave  a  Deputation  to  one  Bleeker  at  his  desire  to  survey  the  land 
last  fall  though  I  had  refused  the  hke  to  others. ,  When  I  was 
last  at  New  York  the  Mayor  brought  me  an  Indian  Purchase  & 
a  Survey  made  by  Bleeker.  The  purchase  was  of  Prior  date 
to  the  Survey.  The  Boundaries  .  .  .  were  not  the  same  with 
the  Survey  nor  could  I  from  anything  on  the  Deed  know  that 
the  survey  was  of  the  same  land.  Neither  was  the  endorse- 
ments by  the  Surveyor  &  Justice  of  Peace  made  as  required 
by  the  Law.  I  told  the  Mayor  that  I  thought  that  patent 
would  not  pass  the  Council  ...  &  advised  him  to  send  it 
back  immediatly  to  have  a  new  deed  .  .  .  made. 

"  When  the  Mayor  came  to  my  Lodgings  Nicholas  Bayard  was 
with  me  to  have  my  son  to  go  &  survey  a  purchase  in  the 
Mohawk  Country.  Mr.  Bayard  had  wrote  to  my  son  to  sur- 
vey the  lands  in  his  Licence.  My  son  in  answer  wrote  to  him 
that  he  heard  that  Theobald  Yough  &  others  had  purchased 
the  land  ...  on  which  he  said  he  would  enter  a  caveat  against 
granting  that  land  &  said  some  warm  things.  I  did  not  let 
him  know  that  the  Mayor  was  concerned  in  that  patent  nor  of 
any  defects  .  .  .  but  after  he  was  gone,  I  informed  the  Mayor 
of  what  he  had  said  &  told  him  there  was  the  more  reason  to 
have  his  patent  made  in  proper  form.  In  all  this  I  think  I 
acted  a  friendly  part  to  the  Mayor.  I  could  not  be  certain 
that  the  land  in  which  the  Mayor  is  concerned  is  the  same  that 
Bayard  has  or  intends  to  purchase  nor  could  Bayard  be  certain 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  73 

of  it.  I  could  not  refuse  to  send  my  son  to  survey  his  patent 
without  raising  a  clamour  that  must  have  been  prejudicial  to 
myself  &  could  not  have  been  of  any  service  to  the  Mayor,  but 
otherwise.  ...  I  told  Coll  Johnson,"  Golden  went  on  to  ex- 
plain, "that  if  he  would  either  buy  or  borrow  or  hire  James  Liv- 
ingstons Quadrant  I  would  carry  it  home  &  try  it  to  know  how 
far  it  may  be  depended  on  &  instruct  my  son  in  the  use  of  it,  .  ,  . 
This  I  told  him  last  year  &  likewise  when  I  was  last  at  New 
York  he  may  have  some  reasons  for  delaying  the  patent  which 
he  does  not  tell  me  but  when  I  was  last  at  New  York  he  told  me 
that  he  could  not  go  on  with  the  purchase  at  this  time  for  that 
some  of  all  the  Five  Nations  must  meet  before  he  can  make  the 
purchase  &  be  present  at  the  Survey  &  that  he  did  not  know 
when  he  could  have  them  to  meet  for  that  purpose  the  Lands 
on  Susquehana  River  being  in  common  among  all  the  Nations. 
"You  know  the  one  &  only  reason  of  M"^  Livingstons  coming 
to  my  house.  Coll  Beekman  never  was  at  my  house  in  his  life 
that  I  remember  neither  have  I  seen  him  since  some  time  last 
fall  when  he  desired  me  to  make  a  proposal  to  you  relating  to 
the  lands  in  controversy  between  you  and  him.  He  came  to 
my  son's  the  day  after  I  left  my  son's  house  on  my  way  to  New 
York  the  last  time  I  was  there.  He  was  in  such  haste  the  sloop 
waiting  for  him  that  he  did  not  enter  the  door  but  talkt  to  him 
...  &  went  directly  again  on  board.  I  have  not  by  word  mes- 
sage or  letter  directly  or  indirectly  had  any  intercourse  with  any 
of  the  Faction  unless  M""  Bayards  coming  to  my  Lodging  be 
called  such  &  which  he  did  only  because  he  imagined  it  to  be 
in  my  power  to  favour  him  on  which  occasion  he  said  some 
fooUsh  fawning  things  which  I  told  the  Govr  &  some  others 
as  a  jest  &  in  the  manner  it  deserved.  I  cannot  avoid  con- 
versing with  people  without  distinction  on  matters  relating  to 
my  office  &  to  my  private  affairs.  The  persons  concerned 
with  the  Mayor  in  the  purchase  of  the  lands  before  mentioned 


74  Cadwallader  Colden 

have  distinguished  themselves  notoriously  in  the  Faction  at 
Albany  as  it  is  said  his  own  Brothers  have  done.  .  .  . 

"His  Excellency  I  beUeve  is  not  well  informed  of  the  dis- 
tinction of  Granting  of  Lands  to  the  persons  who  have  purchased 
them  from  the  Indians  &  Granting  Lands  that  have  been  all- 
ready  purchased  &  where  the  Grantee  is  freed  from  that 
charge.  In  the  first  case  the  purchaser  having  an  equitable 
right  to  the  King's  grant." 

When,  moreover,  according  to  Ayscough's  promise,  a  full 

list    of    the    patents    was    sent     him     Colden    first    pointed 

out  that  hcenses  to  purchase  were  not  sent   to  the  surveyor 

general's  office  but  dehvered  to  the  purchaser,  the  surveyor 

general  knowing  nothing  of  them  until  they  were  returned  to 

the  secretary  (of  the  province),  when  a  warrant  of  survey  was 

issued,  the  purchaser  later  returning  the  completed  survey  to 

the  same  official  as  a  prehminary  to  receiving  his  patent.     Then, 

first  stating  that  he  had  neglected  no  such  warrant,  he  went 

through  the  fist  in  detail,  showing  that  the  complainants  had 

either  obtained  the  warrant  and  then  put  off  the  survey,  with 

the  surveyor  ready  and  willing  to  make  it,  or  they  had  not  even 

appHed  for  a  warrant ;  or,  and  this  included  the  majority,  they 

had  neglected  to  return  the  finished  survey  to  the  office.     Even 

after  this  apparently  candid  statement,  it  was  only  after  the 

expenditure  of  much  ingenuity  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Ayscough 

and  Mr.  Alexander  that  Clinton  was  brought  to  realize  that 

Colden  had  treated  him  ill  neither  in  this  nor  in  other  respects. 

And  even  then  his  mind,  having  once  taken  a  suspicious  turn, 

was  incHned  to  take  it  again  as  soon  as  the  friendly  pressure  of 

the  two  conspirators  was  removed.     Besides,  he  was  getting 

anxious  to  become  a  landowner  of  some  significance  before  he 

returned  to  England,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  was  feeling 

his  way  to  this  end.     "Mrs.  Chnton  and  myself,"  he  wrote 

Colden  on  July  28,  1752,  "having  been  often  asked  by  our 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  75 

Friends,  if  we  had  not  taken  up  Lands  for  Ourselves  and 
Children,  our  answer  was,  that  as  we  were  going  home  so  soon, 
we  did  not  think  it  worth  our  whiles,  and  in  short,  did  not  know 
in  what  method  to  do  it,  for  want  of  proper  Information,  and 
that  very  few  Lands  had  been  granted  till  lately.  But  as 
(contrary  to  my  Inclinations  and  Expectations)  I  find  that  I 
am  to  remain  in  the  Province,  God  knows  how  long,  I  cant 
but  think  it  incumbent  upon  me  for  the  sake  of  my  Family,  to 
do  what  I  can  for  them ;  and  being  informed  that  one  Fourth  of 
all  Lands  patented,  are  vested  in  the  Crown  &  set  apart  for  the 
use  of  the  King,  and  consequently  for  myself,  which  was  done, 
I  beheve,  by  your  Regulation  for  the  Benefit  of  Governours, 
and  as  the  Purchas  and  Survey  are  paid  for  by  the  Petitioners, 
I  must  think  I  have  a  just  Right  of  such  a  Fourth,  to  take  out 
Patents  for  the  same  for  my  Family  &  Friends,  I  shall  be  much 
obUged  to  you  to  put  me  into  a  Method  how  to  do  it ;  As  I  have 
been  so  often  pressed  to  it  by  friends  to  take  up  a  Fourth  of  all 
future  Patents,  granted  while  I  stay  on  the  Spot.  I  must  rely 
on  your  Friendship,  that  in  all  Returns  of  Survey  to  come  you 
will  do  the  King  justice  by  impartially  dividing  the  Lands,  so 
that  his  Majesty's  fourth  may  be  as  good  as  any  of  the  other 
three  parts,  and  when  so  divided,  I  cannot  but  think  it  just 
that  Lots  may  be  drawn  for  the  Fourth." 

But  whether  Colden  did  his  best  for  him  or  not,  Chnton 
continued  to  feel  somewhat  sore.  "His  Excellency  being  up 
to  the  Elbows  in  pen.  Ink  &  Paper  has  not  time  to  write  him- 
self by  this  opportunity,  but  orders  me  to  acquaint  you,  that  in 
pursuance  of  your  Letter  to  him,  sometime  before  he  fixed  for 
his  Departure,  wherein  you  desire  to  purchase  his  land  in  Dan- 
bury  Township,  patented  in  my  Name,  for  which  you  ofi'ered 
him  ;)(^4oo,  (and)  he  said  he  would  accept  of  your  proposal.  But 
your  Silence  on  that  head  when  down  here,  makes  him  think 
you  had  dropt  your  design,  or  forgot  it,  as  well  as  he  had  to 


76  Cadwallader  Colden 

mention  it  to  you.  But  as  there  is  now  application  made  for 
it,  he  desires  your  Answer  on  that  head  as  he  will  do  nothing 
in  it  till  he  hears  your  Determination." 

This  letter,  as  it  happened,  was  dated  November  instead  of 
September  and  was  unsigned,  points  to  which  Colden  promptly 
called  attention,  and  which  Ayscough  as  promptly  acknowledged. 
"I  very  well  remember  your  telling  me,"  the  latter  went  on, 
"that  a  part  of  the  Tract  of  Land,  patented  in  my  name  and 
conveyed  to  his  Excellency  from  me,  would  be  of  great  Service 
to  you,  as  you  had  a  Lot  directly  opposite  to  his,  on  the  other 
side  of  a  Brook  or  River,  and  where,  as  you  told  me,  some  of 
your  Tenants  had  settled,  (tho'  on  his  Excellencys  Land),  as 
I  have  seen  in  a  Draught  of  both  Patents,  and  if  I  rightly  re- 
member, you  told  me,  you  made  no  Doubt,  but  the  Governour 
would  let  you  have  the  Land,  as  it  would  be  of  a  very  great 
Convenience  to  your  Tenants  and  Service  to  you,  the  Stream 
being  very  proper  for  a  Mill,  this  I  acquainted  his  Excellency 
with,  as  you  desired  me.  But  really  I  cannot  charge  my 
Memory  at  this  time  with  his  Answer,  if  he  gave  me  any, 
neither  did  I  know  anything  of  your  proposal  till  he  told  me 
the  morning  I  wrote  to  you  by  his  Order  upon  it. 

"  I  carried  your  Letter  to  his  Excellency,  &  he  tells  me,  that 
...  he  imagined  it  would  be  of  more  value  to  you  than  another, 
for  which  reason  only  he  would  accept  of  your  offer  of  ;j^4c»o 
preferable  to  any  AppUcation  notwithstanding  that  part  of  the 
Patent,  which  you  say,  you  would  still  gladly  have  a  hundred 
Acres  of,  his  Excellency  says  might  probably  be  equivalent  to  the 
whole  in  Value,  yet  his  Excellency  orders  me  to  acquaint  [you] 
that  he  will  accept  of  your  first  Proposalls,  as  the  thing  may  be  of 
Benifit  to  you,  and  compensate  for  the  Expence  you  was  at  in  Sur- 
veying it ;  He  would  be  glad  to  hear  from  you  on  this  Head,  as  he 
would  also  upon  what  you  and  he  talked  of,  when  you  was  here 
last,  on  which  he  was  in  expectation  to  have  had  your  Senti- 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  Getter al  77 

ments  before  now."  To  this  Golden  replied  by  writing  to 
Clinton  himself  as  follows:  "There  are  some  things  in  a  letter 
which  I  received  by  Mr.  Harrison  from  Mr.  Ascough  which 
I  think  necessary  to  be  answered  and  which  I  hope  your  Ex- 
cellency will  think  cannot  be  properly  done  otherwise  than 
directly  to  yourself.  From  the  letter  it  is  evident  that  he  & 
perhaps  your  Excellency  thinks  that  I  intended  to  deceive 
your  Excellency  in  desiring  to  purchase  only  that  part  of 
the  land  granted  to  Dr  Ascough  which  is  adjoining  to  a  lot  of 
land  which  I  have  there.  One  hundred  acres  adjoining  to 
mine  by  his  Account  being  more  valuable  than  all  the  remainder. 
This  has  made  me  resolve  to  purchase  neither  the  whole  nor 
any  part  of  that  land  &  in  this  I  beheve  your  Excellency  thinks 
I  do  you  no  injury  by  the  manner  in  which  it  is  continued  to  be 
ofifered  to  me  for  the  sum  your  Excel''^  was  pleased  to  agree 
to  accept  from  me  last  summer.  But  at  the  same  time  I  abso- 
lutely deny  that  I  ever  told  Dr  Ayscough  that  there  was  a 
Stream  of  Water  convenient  for  a  Mill  adjoining  to  my  Lot, 
Because  to  my  knowledge  it  is  not  true.  The  place  for  a  mill 
is  on  Croton's  River  &  Croton's  River  runs  through  my  land 
but  The  place  for  a  Mill  is  a  Mile  to  the  Southward  of  any  part 
of  my  land.  And  the  meadow  grounds  on  Croton's  River 
which  I  suppose  Dr  Ayscough  means  are  not  opposite  to  my 
Lot  but  to  a  Lot  belonging  to  Mr  Smith  which  adjoins  mine 
to  the  Southward  &  these  meadow  grounds  however  are  noth- 
ing of  the  value  which  the  Dr  seems  to  put  on  them.  The 
Doctor  has  information  of  the  land  &  I  shall  say  nothing 
further  in  contradiction  to  what  others  may  say  The  truth  can 
easily  be  proved  by  ocular  Demonstration  on  the  Spot.  If  I 
had  only  a  view  to  serve  myself  I  could  have  taken  a  patent 
on  anothers  name  for  the  same  land  without  your  Excellency's 
knowing  anything  of  it  as  others  have  don.  My  intention  was 
to  serve  your  Excellency  in  it  &  your  Excellency  will  never  in 


78  Cadwallader  Colden 

truth  discover  that  I  ever  intended  anything  to  the  contrary 
in  order  to  serve  myself.  I  have  before  this  observed  a  De- 
sign somewhere  to  give  your  Excellency  a  prejudice  against  me. 
I  cannot  remove  it  without  knowing  the  grounds  of  it.  Others 
may  be  more  successful  but  none  can  be  more  faithfull  than 
I  have  been.  The  Dr  tells  me  that  your  Excellency  expects  to 
hear  from  me  on  what  your  Excellency  talkt  to  me  when  last 
at  New  York.  Whatever  it  be  it  has  entirely  escaped  my 
memory  &  therefore  must  beg  a  renewal  of  your  Commands 
on  that  head." 

Satisfied  or  not,  the  time  had  come  for  Clinton  to  give  place 
to  another,  who  of  his  own  free  will  and  at  once  gave  place 
in  turn  to  James  Delancey.  This  was  a  great  disappoint- 
ment for  Colden.  Sometime  before  the  arrival  of  the  new 
governor  he  had  written  to  the  ministry  for  an  increase  in  his 
salary  as  surveyor  general,  and  although  HaUfax  replied  through 
CUnton  that  Horace  Walpole,  the  auditor  general,  declared 
Colden 's  salary  to  be  large  enough;  and  although  later  he 
wrote  to  Colden  himself  that  the  income  of  the  New  York 
establishment  was  less  than  its  expenditure ;  Colden  chose  to 
consider  his  somewhat  vague  praises  an  earnest  of  future 
importance.^  The  blighting  of  his  political  prospects,  how- 
ever, was  followed  by  a  dead  silence  on  the  part  of  his  corre- 
spondent, and  when  his  friend  ColHnson  obtained  a  personal 
interview,  he  was  told  that  Walpole  had  now  told  Hahfax  that 
Mr.  Pelham's  death  had  put  Newcastle  in  charge  of  such  mat- 
ters and  had  made  the  desired  increase  extremely  problematical.^ 

Now  more  than  ever  glad  that  his  commission  was  secure, 
Colden  could  not  but  regret  that  he  would  be  even  less  hkely  to 
influence  legislation  for  the  correction  of  the  abuses  with  which 
his  work  continually  brought  him  in  contact  than  he  had  been 

^  Written  May  17,  1753,  though  it  did  not  reach  New  York  until  September. 
^  From  Collinson,  July  30,  1754. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  79 

in  the  past.  With  the  French  marching  onward  almost  hour 
by  hour,  the  man  who  had  studied  their  claims  with  enthusiasm, 
and  who,  in  all  probability,  knew  more  of  the  geography  of  the 
country  than  any  other,  was  destined  to  be  of  importance.  At 
the  same  time,  it  was  a  secondary  importance;  he  was  to  be 
little  more  than  a  book  of  reference,  and  Golden  did  not  relish 
the  prospect.  He  longed  to  be  a  constructive  statesman,  and 
in  order  to  show  what  he  could  do  had  he  the  chance,  and  be 
ready  for  emergencies,  he,  about  this  time,  when  the  interest 
of  thoughtful  men  the  colonies  over  was  turned  toward  the 
Albany  congress,  sketched  a  plan  of  colonial  government  of 
his  own,  in  which  a  landed  and  exclusive  aristocracy  was  a 
chief  feature.  The  colonies,  however,  were  entering  on  a  period 
rather  concrete  than  abstract,  and  for  the  next  seven  years  there 
was  little  time  for  theorizing  on  the  relations  between  colony 
and  colony  or  colony  and  crown.  In  New  York,  in  particular, 
the  last  French  war,  with  its  stirring  of  racial  impulses ;  the 
struggle  for  the  boundary  she  had  long  considered  her  own 
with  its  accompaniments  of  what  amounted  to  border  warfare ; 
the  controversy  as  to  the  government  of  the  new  college  with 
its  tightening  of  religious  prejudices,  —  all  served  to  distract 
attention  from  the  real  issue.  Yet  these  events  were  constantly 
affecting  it  in  one  way  or  another.  If  the  war  emphasized  the 
essential  unity  of  Englishmen,  it  also  showed  the  colonists  how 
possible  it  was  to  work  together  effectively ;  if  the  establishment 
of  King's  College  proved  the  presence  of  many  to  whom  English 
methods  and  traditions  were  dear,  it  also  proved  them  to  be 
far  in  the  minority ;  and  if  the  boundary  disputes  made  neigh- 
bours enemies,  it  also  showed  them  the  necessity  of  a  govern- 
ment that  could  assist  them  in  their  difficulties.  The  war  also, 
of  course,  put  a  stop  to  the  task  of  the  surveyor.  But  Golden 
did  not  know  the  meaning  of  relaxation  or  indifference,  and, 
though  his  relations  with  the  head  of  the  government  forbade 


8o  Cadwallader  Colden 

any  but  the  most  casual  attendance  on  the  council,  he  kept  a 
watchful  eye  on  its  activities,  and  by  letters  of  suggestion  and 
advice  contributed  materially  to  the  protection  of  the  frontier, 
while  he  scanned  the  uncertain  proceedings  on  the  New  Jersey, 
the  New  Hampshire,  and  the  Massachusetts  lines,  seeing  one 
day  undo  the  work  of  the  preceding,  with  unabated  interest. 
Indeed,  he  himself  served  at  one  time  as  a  commissioner  on  the 
boundary  between  New  York  and  Massachusetts.  Thus  the 
summons  of  1760  found  him  mentally  so  alive  to  the  situation 
that  he  was  enabled  to  bridge  with  considerable  ease  the  passage 
from  leisurely  experiment  and  speculation  to  pohtical  activity 
of  a  controversial  sort. 

His  interest  in  land  was  now  twofold,  and  one  of  his  first 
letters  home  in  his  new  official  capacity  urged  a  fund  for  pur- 
chasing land  from  the  Indians  for  the  king's  use,  and  in  his 
name,  in  order  to  prevent  the  abuses  almost  inseparably  con- 
nected with  private  purchase.  These  had  become  more  notice- 
able of  late,  because  the  most  recent  instructions  had  dropped 
the  clause  requiring  the  presence  of  the  surveyor  general  wherever 
boundaries  were  run,  and  had,  by  implication  at  least,  given 
permission  to  the  governor  to  employ  any  surveyor  he  liked,  a 
permission  that  had  been  well  taken.  Yet  there  had  never  been 
more  need  of  care.  The  first  turn  in  the  tide  of  war  had  been 
made  use  of  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Delancey,  and,  in  1759, 
he  had  issued  a  proclamation  offering  special  inducements  to 
officers  of  volunteers  and  regulars  to  settle  in  the  region  east  of 
Lake  Champlain.  His  offer  was  accepted  with  considerable 
promptness,  and  just  before  and  just  after  Colden 's  arrival  in 
New  York,  a  large  number  of  petitions  for  the  purchase  of  land 
were  presented  to  the  council.  Colden,  however,  though  long 
in  favour  of  peopling  the  frontiers,  thought  this  movement  a 
trifle  premature.  He  preferred  to  wait  until  the  bounds  of  the 
colony  had  been  defined  by  the  actual  articles  of  peace,  inti- 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  8i 

mated  that  the  petitions  of  Captain  Skene  and  six  provincial 
colonels,  each  of  whom  wanted  a  township,  should  be  run  as 
usual  by  crown  officers;  and,  when  he  was  confirmed  in  his 
opinion  by  receiving  a  petition  from  several  officers  of  the 
provincial  forces  for  land  which  he  found  included  within  the 
bounds  mentioned  by  the  captain,  put  a  prompt  stop  to  all 
proceedings  in  regard  to  the  matter,  while  he  waited  for  in- 
structions from  home.  There  was  land  enough  and  to  spare, 
and  it  was  absurd  to  confuse  matters  hopelessly  when  there 
was  no  necessity  for  it. 

This  was  especially  true  because  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
necessary  confusion.  Although,  in  conformity  with  the  claims 
of  the  conquered  Dutch,  the  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York  had 
explicitly  made  the  Connecticut  River  New  York's  eastern 
boundary;  although  the  final  settlement  with  Connecticut  had 
been  founded  on  this  provision;  although  the  Massachusetts 
charter,  or  the  charter  on  which  it  was  based,  only  extended 
the  western  bounds  of  that  colony  so  far  as  they  could  go  with- 
out clashing  with  the  claims  of  other  Christians;  the  Massa- 
chusetts people  had  never  accepted  this  limitation,  and  New 
Hampshire,  being  empowered  by  its  charter  to  extend  as  far 
westward  as  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  had  to  a  degree 
followed  her  lead.  In  1749,  however,  the  governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  Benning  Wentworth,  wrote  Clinton  that  as  he  was 
about  to  make  some  grants  west  of  the  Connecticut,  he  wished 
to  know  how  far  north  and  east  New  York  extended.  At  the 
same  time  he  offered  certain  reasons  for  his  belief  in  his  juris- 
diction beyond  the  river,  and  the  next  year,  in  acknowledging 
CUnton's  communication  of  a  minute  of  council  declaring  the 
New  York  position,  stated  that  he  had  already  issued  letters 
patent  for  the  town  of  Bennington,  twenty-four  miles  east  of 
Albany.  Clinton  repHed  that  this  land  had  already  been  granted 
by  New  York,  and  he  added  that  he  was  greatly  surprised  at 


82  Cddwallader  Colden 

Wentworth's  hurry  under  the  circumstances.  Went  worth  then 
proposed  a  reference  of  the  whole  matter  to  England,  in  accept- 
ing which  proposition,  Clinton  proposed  in  turn  that  they  ex- 
change their  statements  before  submitting  them.  Wentworth 
announced  himself  quite  willing  to  do  so,  and  New  York  pro- 
ceeded to  give  the  reasons  for  her  conviction  in  the  form  of  a 
report  of  a  committee  of  council,  reenforced  by  some  observa- 
tions of  Colden 's,  proving  that  Massachusetts,  and  consequently 
New  Hampshire,  had  no  legal  claim  west  of  the  Connecticut. 
Meanwhile,  notwithstanding  his  promises  or  the  explanations 
already  made  him,  Wentworth  had  written  to  the  Board  of 
Trade,  reverting  to  his  original  argument  and  claiming  for  his 
province  a  western  line  running  twenty  miles  east  of  the  Hudson, 
which  letter,  sent  to  Clinton  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  was  his 
first  intimation  of  Wentworth's  readiness  to  report  and  was 
pronounced  "extraordinary,"  by  the  council,  who  again  refuted 
the  New  Hampshire  governor's  premises. 

Nevertheless,  nothing  further  had  been  done  when  Colden  re- 
turned to  the  city  of  New  York  in  1760.  Instead,  he  found 
the  situation  complicated  by  the  preemption  of  a  vast  tract  of 
land  east  of  the  Hudson  and  south  of  Crown  Point  by  the 
famous  John  Henry  Lydius  and  a  number  of  New  Englanders, 
a  tract  that  included  Fort  Edward  and  several  regularly  granted 
patents  and  amounted  in  all  to  more  than  a  milHon  acres. 
Lydius  based  his  claim  on  an  Indian  deed,  signed  by  several 
Iroquois,  and  dated  1732 ;  but  it  had  been  confirmed  by  a  grant 
by  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  supposed  to  be  dated  1744, 
and  repeating  an  order  from  the  king  to  Shirley  to  examine  it, 
and,  if  he  found  it  to  be  bona  fide,  to  grant  it.  But,  if  Massachu- 
setts had  anything  to  say  about  it  at  all,  the  grant  should  have 
been  made  by  her  General  Court.  Yet  Lydius  had  persisted 
and,  by  his  own  confession,  had  granted  portions  of  his  claim  to 
more  than  seven  hundred  individuals,  who  declared  themselves 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  83 

ready  to  defy  the  officers  of  the  law  by  force.  Lydius  himself 
was  now  in  jail  under  prosecution,  but  there  was  no  money 
with  which  to  prosecute  him,  and  Golden,  realizing  that  proceed- 
ings of  like  character  would  be  more  instead  of  less  frequent 
unless  something  was  done,  issued  a  proclamation  declaring 
the  Connecticut  to  be  New  York's  eastern  boundary.  At  the 
same  time  he  described  the  situation  to  his  ministerial  corre- 
spondents, urging,  in  general,  the  estabUshment  of  a  contingent 
fund  for  just  such  cases  and,  in  particular,  the  declaration  of  his 
Majesty's  pleasure  in  regard  to  the  New  Hampshire  line.  In 
fact,  this  was  all  that  was  necessary,  as  the  right  both  to  the  soil 
and  that  to  jurisdiction  lay  immediately  in  the  crown.  Then 
pointing  out  the  limitation  of  New  York's  commerce  that 
would  ensue  if  New  Hampshire  came  out  victorious,  as  well  as 
the  inconvenience  of  making  Portsmouth  the  capital  for  so 
large  a  district,  he  called  attention  to  certain  features  of  the 
case  with  Massachusetts.  It  was  evident  that  her  repeated 
and  capricious  objections  to  the  attempts  made  to  effect  a 
decision  must  have  a  reason,  and  Golden  suggested  that  this 
might  spring  from  a  hope  of  forcing  the  king  to  her  wishes, 
the  public  opinion  of  a  charter  government,  where  every  man 
felt  himself  interested,  supporting  the  delay.  As  usual,  he  had 
remedies  to  offer.  There  might  be  a  special  commission  ap- 
pointed by  the  crown,  but  this  was  expensive  and  the  assembly 
would  be  unwilling  to  give  unlimited  credit ;  or  writs  of  intru- 
sions returnable  in  the  New  York  courts  might  be  issued  by 
order  of  the  governor.  These  could  be  accompanied  by  direc- 
tions to  Massachusetts  to  plead  to  such  jurisdiction,  and  that 
would  bring  the  case  to  England  where  it  could  best  be  decided, 
as  the  whole  issue  depended  upon  the  construction  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts charter. 

About  this  time  Golden  also  reached  other  conclusions  in 
regard  to  the  general  question.    Amherst's  brilliant  success  at 


84  Cadwallader  Colden 

Fort  Levis  in  1760  had  been  followed  at  his  suggestion  by  a 
proclamation  urging  the  return  of  the  settlers  who  had  been 
driven  by  the  war  from  their  outlying  farms,  as  well  as  the  com- 
ing of  others,  the  advantages  of  the  fertile  fields  on  either  side 
of  the  Mohawk  being  especially  emphasized.  But  according 
to  the  instructions  the  patentees  were  effectually  to  improve 
within  three  years  a  certain  quantity  of  their  land — the  amount 
to  be  determined  by  the  council — or  forfeit  the  grant.  By  the 
instructions  also,  on  the  same  penalty,  a  patentee  must  leave 
untouched  all  pines  fit  for  masts.  This  might  mean  in  certain 
cases  that  he  could  not  clear  his  land  or  build  his  house  or  his 
barn  or,  if  he  lived  on  the  water,  his  boat ;  while  his  farm  was 
probably  so  far  from  New  York  or  Albany  that  the  British 
navy  or  merchant  marine  would  reap  Uttle  profit  from  his 
trees.  So  he  might  forfeit  his  grant  either  way.  From  such 
prohibitions  the  inhabitants  of  the  charter  governments  to  the 
east  were  free,  and  it  behooved  all  to  consider  what  they  prom- 
ised. Indeed,  the  council  were  debating  the  question  at  that 
moment. 

Difficulties  had  also  sprung  up  with  Sir  WilUam  Johnson,* 
who,  early  in  the  spring  of  1761,  had  obtained  a  large  tract  of 
land  north  of  the  Mohawk  by  deed  of  gift  from  the  Indians. 
Unfortunately,  Colonel  Delancey  and  others  had  shortly  before 
obtained  a  Hcense  to  purchase  the  same  tract  and,  mindful  of 
the  rule  forbidding  the  acceptance  of  lands  from  the  Indians 
by  purchase  or  otherwise,  without  a  hcense,  Colden  tried  to 
bring  about  a  compromise.  But,  though  he  told  Johnson  that 
he  wished  him  well  and  expressed  his  sorrow  at  not  being  able 
to  obUge  him,  the  fact  remained  that  he  did  not  present  his 
case  to  the  council,  and  Johnson  was  correspondingly  indignant. 
It  was,  therefore,  with  pleasure  that  he  informed  Colden  that 
the  Indians  had  determined  to  sell  no  more  of  their  lands,  and 
*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  87,  93-97,  and  130-131.   ■ 


.  A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  85 

that  a  large  tract  east  of  "the  waters,"  which  the  council  were 
about  to  grant  to  some  "reduced  officers,"  belonged  to  the 
Mohawks,  a  fact  which  Colden  doubted,  as  the  tract  lay  in  what 
once  had  been  the  Delhus  patent.  Colden's  candid  letters,  how- 
ever, seem  finally  to  have  soothed  Sir  William.  The  furtherance 
of  a  greater  or  lesser  number  of  grants,  the  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor protested,  had  little  personal  interest  for  him,  for,  passed 
they  never  so  quickly,  he  would  hardly  be  on  hand  to  reap  the 
advantage.  But  perhaps  what  won  the  old  colonel's  heart 
was  Colden's  determination  that,  whatever  happened,  the 
Indians  should  not  suffer  while  he  was  in  authority.  Indeed, 
he  was  so  anxious  they  should  be  reassured  that  he  wrote  beg- 
ging Johnson  to  call  to  their  minds  what  he  had  done  for  them 
thirty  years  before.^  This  was  in  connection  with  a  land  fraud 
at  Canajoharie,  which  Johnson  was  investigating,  though  not 
very  systematically.  He  had  laid  the  case  before  the  council 
without  affidavits,  owing  to  which  circumstance,  as  Colden 
wrote  him,  they  could  not  do  a  thing,  though  they  appeared 
sympathetic.  Colden  therefore  advised  him  to  go  back  to 
the  frauds  in  the  original  purchase,  of  which  he  believed  David 
Schuyler  and  his  son  could  tell  him  much,  and  to  get  a  complaint 
in  writing  from  the  Indians,  for  whose  temporary  relief  he  him- 
self would  work  in  the  meanwhile. 

In  all  this,  it  is  true,  Colden  had  been  acting  as  governor 
rather  than  as  surveyor  general,  though  he  retained  the  second 
office  until  the  early  part  of  1763,  when  he  resigned  in  favour 
of  his  son.  Still,  so  entirely  was  his  policy  in  these  matters 
governed  by  his  knowledge,  and  so  entirely  had  he  attained  his 
knowledge  from  his  past  experience,  that  it  is  impossible  not 
to  consider  this  particular  phase  of  his  stewardship  a  natural 
culmination  of  his  former  occupation.  He  was  now,  as  lieu- 
tenant-governor, called  upon  to  deal  with  a  successor  of   the 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  70-71. 


86  Cadwallader  Colden 

measure  he  had  fought  so  long  before.  Another  act  for  the 
partition  of  lands  in  common  now  made  its  appearance,  and 
so  vehement  were  its  sponsors  that  Colden  did  not  dare  refuse 
it  his  countenance,  though  he  sent  it  to  England  by  the  first 
ship  after  its  passage,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  get  the  royal  dis- 
approval before  it  went  into  execution.  Neither  Governor 
Hardy  nor  Governor  Monckton  had  compHed  with  their  in- 
structions caUing  for  a  determined  attempt  to  break  the  huge 
grants  still  existing,  and  indeed  it  would  have  cost  them  dear 
to  do  so.  A  great  interest  would  have  attacked  them  and  they 
had  no  contingent  fund  for  the  actual  expense  involved.  More- 
over, though  the  attorney  generals  of  New  York  had  formerly 
been  lawyers  of  repute,  for  more  than  thirty  years  their  ability 
had  been  such  that  private  citizens  had  refused  to  intrust 
them  with  their  affairs.  It  was  only  the  king  and  his  governors 
who  were  forced  to  employ  them.  Colden  therefore  got  a 
clause  inserted  in  the  act  requiring  that  the  bounds  of  every 
tract  be  run  by  the  surveyor  general,  when,  if  they  were  found 
to  encroach  on  the  king's  lands,  writs  of  intrusion  would  prove 
equally  effective  and  far  less  Hable  to  arouse  general  opposition 
than  an  attempt  to  break  a  grant  for  some  legal  defect.  At 
that  very  time,  for  instance,  as  he  enclosed  a  map  to  show, 
there  was  a  dispute  of  this  sort  before  the  council  between  Van 
Rensselaer  of  the  Manor  and  several  others  who  had  petitioned 
for  land  within  his  claim  but  not  within  his  actual  grant,  and 
the  question  was;  Should  their  petition  be  refused  when  they 
were  wilhng  to  pay  for  and  defend  their  purchase?^ 

But  Colden  was  to  have  worse  to  bear  than  impersonal  mat- 
ters such  as  these.  Late  in  the  year  1761,  just  when  he  had 
promised  himself  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  the  ministry 
with  some  authority  his  plans  for  the  settlement  of  the  country, 
the  Board  of  Trade  memorialized  the  king  to  the  effect  that  the 

^  *  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  155-158. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  87 

lieutenant-governor  and  the  council  of  New  York  had  been 
pushing  the  granting  of  lands  more  for  their  own  benefit  than 
for  that  of  the  people  in  general.  At  the  same  time  they  noti- 
fied Golden  of  what  they  had  done,*  touching  him  to  the  quick 
and  bringing  forth  a  vehement  denial.  He  solemnly  declared 
his  absolute  lack  of  interest  in  any  Indian  purchase,  any  Hcense 
to  purchase  any  grant  of  land,  and  promised  a  particular 
answer  to  particular  instances.  As  to  his  family,  a  man  with 
grown-up  grandchildren  might  be  supposed  to  be  free  from 
responsibihty  for  their  purchases,  but  even  here  he  did  not 
know  of  a  single  investment  since  his  administration  began. 
If,  moreover,  he  and  the  council  had  made  the  conditions  of 
the  grants  somewhat  easy,  it  was  for  a  very  good  reason.  Am- 
herst's proclamation  had  given  rise  to  a  number  of  licenses  to 
purchase  land  on  the  frontiers.  For  this  purpose  it  was  neces- 
sary to  get  the  whole  tribe  owning  it  together,  and  as  this  was 
a  difficult  and  expensive  proceeding,  it  became  customary  for 
the  prospective  patentees  to  lump  their  purchases,  the  rich 
speculator  advancing  money  for  the  expenses  of  the  poor  set- 
tler. The  latter,  with  his  interest  to  pay,  could  not  then  hope 
to  meet  the  exact  requirements  of  the  instructions,  but  Golden 
affirmed  that  as  yet  he  had  had  to  do  with  but  two  actual  grants, 
one  of  twenty  thousand  acres,  which  had  not  passed  the  seals, 
and  another  of  small  extent  and  granted  before  Golden  had 
received  an  additional  instruction  effectually  prohibiting  the 
purchase  of  land  from  the  Indians.  It  must  have  been  hard 
for  a  man  to  be  accused  of  the  very  thing  he  had  so  long  hunted 
down  in  others,  but  Golden  was  elastic  and  was  soon  declaiming 
against  land  greediness  as  before.  "We  have  a  Set  of  Lawyers 
in  this  Province  as  Insolent,  Petulant,  and  at  the  same  time  as 
well  skilled  in  all  the  Ghicanerie  of  the  Law  as  is  perhaps  to 
be  found  any  where  else,"  ^  he  was  soon  writing  in  discussing 
^  Ibid.p  176-184.  '  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  231. 


88  Cadwallader  Colden 

the  diflBculty  of  annulling  the  over-large  grants,  once  they  were 
made. 

Meanwhile  Governor  Monckton  ^  had  come  and  gone,  leav- 
ing behind  a  representation  made  to  him  by  five  members  of 
council  in  regard  to  New  York's  disputed  boundaries.  This 
Colden  found,  and  fearing  that  Monckton  would  present  its 
contents  verbally  to  the  authorities  at  home,  he  at  once  set  him- 
self to  correct  its  mistakes.  These  had  to  do  entirely  with  the 
eastern  boundary,  which  these  gentlemen  ventured  to  consider 
should  have  been  fixed,  as  in  the  case  of  Connecticut,  by  the 
royal  commission  of  1664,  which  had  determined  the  boundary 
between  New  York  and  Massachusetts  to  be  a  line  twenty  miles 
distant  from,  and  parallel  to,  the  east  bank  of  the  Hudson.  To 
this  Colden  objected ;  first,  because  no  one  had  mentioned  such 
a  provision  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  which  was  odd  consider- 
ing Massachusetts'  desire  to  make  the  best  claim  possible; 
and  in  the  second  place,  he  asserted,  the  agreement  with  Con- 
necticut could  not  be  claimed  as  a  parallel  case  because  that 
had  been  based  on  equity,  her  principal  towns  having  been 
settled  west  of  her  namesake  river  when  the  Duke  of  York 
received  his  patent,  whereas  Massachusetts  had  at  that 
time  not  once  crossed  it.  Besides,  the  Massachusetts  charter 
had  been  annulled  in  1685  by  a  decree  in  Chancery  that  had 
never  been  reversed,  and  this  fact,  despite  a  second  charter 
granted  later,  absolutely  negatived  any  claim  prior  to  the  duke's 
patent,  which  was  clear  and  distinct.  Moreover,  this  second 
charter  decreed  that  Massachusetts  should  extend  only  as  far 
west  as  Connecticut,  rather  ambiguous  phrasing  that  must  in 
all  common  sense  be  considered  to  mean  the  river  and  not  the 
colony.  Indeed,  the  only  possible  argument  against  this  boun- 
dary was  the  suffering  it  might  cause  the  actual  settlers,  and  even 
this  was  unnecessary  when  it  could  be  arranged  that  they  retain 
their  possessions  under  the  jurisdiction  of  New  York.^    All 

^See  "A  Colonial  Executive."  '^Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  232-246. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  89 

these  considerations,  of  course,  applied  with  double  force  to 
New  Hampshire,  whose  governor,  it  was  discovered  about  this 
time,  had  lately  granted  more  than  thirty,  some  said  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  townships  west  of  the  Connecticut,  and  had 
granted  them  so  Ught-heartedly  that  they  were  actually  being 
offered  for  sale  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  by  a  man  "in 
appearance  no  better  than  a  Pedlar,"  the  grantees  or  their 
employee  counting  on  the  lower  New  Hampshire  quit-rent  as 
an  inducement  to  buyers.  This  was  obvious  proof  that  the 
grantees  were  pure  speculators,  and  that  Wentworth  had  de- 
liberately schemed  to  estabhsh  the  nine  points  of  the  law  ascribed 
to  actual  possession.  The  New  York  council,  who,  apparently 
in  good  faith,  were  playing  into  his  hands,  could  not  have  under- 
stood the  situation  at  all,  for  they  proposed  to  save  only  those 
New  York  grants  that  extended  more  than  twenty  miles  east  of 
the  Hudson  and  that  had  been  made  since  the  issue  of  the  second 
Massachusetts  charter ;  whereas,  Golden  said,  it  was  very  clear 
that  the  second  charter  could  not  have  extended  beyond  the  river, 
though  the  first  very  possibly  might.  On  the  whole,  he  could  not 
conceive  on  what  principles  of  "Justice,  Policy,  or  Publick 
Utihty"  the  councillors  had  advised  such  a  curtailment  of  the 
crown's  future  income.  The  council,  however,  were  as  heartily 
in  favour  of  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  Lydius  and  other  in- 
truders as  Golden  himself,  and  urged  a  fund  for  this  purpose. 
Another  difficulty  in  this  connection  was  the  fact  that  on  a 
royal  proclamation  promising  an  allotment  of  land  to  reduced 
officers,  both  regulars  and  provincials,  many  had  apphed  directly 
to  England  for  their  share.  Here  they  counted  on  the  influence 
of  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst,  under  whose  special  protection  they 
considered  themselves,  and  who  had  been  greatly  interested  in 
establishing  the  army  in  the  walks  of  peace.  In  fact,  at  one 
time  it  had  been  common  talk  among  his  brother  officers 
stationed  in  America  that  he  was  going  to  set  up  a  separate 


90  Cadwallader  Colden 

government  in  the  Champlain  region,  although  the  only  founda- 
tion for  their  belief  seems  to  have  been  that  he  was  pushing  its 
settlement  and  had  started  to  build  a  large  fort  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. But  the  final  cession  of  Canada  put  an  end  to  this  scheme, 
if  he  ever  entertained  it,  and  Colden  was  left  to  face  the  difficulty 
of  putting  off  demands  for  patents  inspired  by  the  proclamation 
until  he  could  find  whether  they  conflicted  with  grants  made  in 
response  to  demands  of  a  like  nature  in  England.  Judging 
from  the  data  he  possessed,  these  grants  clearly  went  as  far 
west  as  Fort  Edward,  so  he  determined  to  make  no  more  east 
of  the  lakes  until  he  heard  from  home.  But  the  English  grantees 
wanted  something  more  than  this.  For  instance,  Philip  Skene, 
the  major  of  a  brigade,  who  had  early  obtained  a  generous  por- 
tion and  then  gone  to  Martinique  without  giving  it  any  atten- 
tion, now  asked  its  confirmation  by  the  council  of  New  York, 
basing  his  claim  on  a  copy  of  the  petition  he  had  sent  to  England. 
Colden  told  him  that,  according  to  the  instructions,  he  could 
not  grant  so  much  to  one  man  nor  could  he  grant  any  tract 
bounded  so  vaguely  and  of  such  indefinite  extent.  He  therefore 
advised  him  to  apply  for  a  grant  of  his  improved  lands  after  a 
previous  survey,  offering  to  faciUtate  the  proceedings  and 
promising  not  knowingly  to  grant  his  lands  to  others.^  But 
Skene  hung  around  town  three  months  longer  without  comply- 
ing with  this  good  advice  and  then  went  to  England.  Mean- 
while the  council  had  considered  his  request  for  a  grant  on  his 
petition,  and  finding  that  it  included  a  tract  already  granted  by 
Colden,  as  well  as  two  others  granted  by  Monckton  on  their 
own  advice,  and  that  all  these  tracts  were  granted  on  original 
surveys,  had  decided  that  his  pretensions  were  not  valid.  Still, 
as  he  said  that  some  of  his  improved  land  was  included  in  one 
of  these  grants,  Colden  urged  the  council  to  except  them.  But 
they  refused  unless  the  patentees  were  willing  and  unless  they 

^  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  225-226. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  91 

could  have  an  equivalent  cut  from  adjacent  lands.*  The  truth 
was  they  were  less  impressed  by  Skene's  account  of  his  expenses 
than  by  his  spasmodic  interest  in  his  possessions,  though 
they  oflfered  to  grant  him  twenty- five  thousand  acres  in  another 
place.  Golden  could  but  think  this  fair  and  told  the  govern- 
ment so,  while  he  vigorously  presented  the  case  of  the  reduced 
officers  whose  grants  must  wait  until  the  major's  claims  should 
be  satisfactorily  adjusted. 

In  truth,  if  Golden  had  had  no  other  complications  to  deal 
with,  his  connection  with  the  land  system  would  have  distracted 
his  administration  to  a  sufficient  extent.  Despite  his  long-sus- 
tained determination  that  the  Indians  should  be  treated  fairly 
so  far  as  their  rights  to  the  soil  went,  and  his  constant  watchful- 
ness to  that  end,  it  was  a  popular  theory  that  the  Indian  out- 
break of  1763  sprang  from  the  indignation  of  certain  New  York 
tribes  at  the  perpetration  of  some  land  frauds;  despite  his 
many  letters  on  the  subject,  he  felt  that  the  ministry  did  not 
understand  the  boundary  question  rightly,  because  Mr.  Gharles, 
the  assembly  agent  on  the  spot,  and  Ukely,  according  to  Golden, 
to  push  the  claims  of  repubUcan  governments,  had  the  better 
audience,  a  consideration  he  did  not  fail  to  mention  to  the 
ministers  themselves;  and  despite  the  best  intentions  in  the 
world  he  found  it  impossible  to  please  every  one  in  dealing  with 
the  private  claims  he  was  constantly  called  upon  to  satisfy. 
In  managing  such  affairs,  nevertheless,  he  was  extraordinarily 
impartial,  and  in  all  his  letters  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  suggestion 
of  self-seeking  or  a  hint  even  of  a  quid  pro  quo.  Occasionally, 
he  would  display  a  mild  sort  of  favouritism  toward  a  friend,  as 
when,  for  instance,  he  promised  Sir  WiUiam  Johnson,  for  a 
relative  of  his,  that  he  would  draw  up  a  petition  for  a  certain 
patent,  and,  as  the  land  between  Fort  Edward  and  Lake  George 
was  now  fully  taken  up,  would  date  it  a  few  days  earlier  in  the 

» Ibid.,  345. 


92  Cadwallader  Colden 

month  so  that  officers  applying  for  it  in  the  meantime  could  be 
refused.  He  suggested  also  that,  pending  the  issue  of  the 
patent,  the  land  be  run  round  by  a  surveyor  before  a  number 
of  Indians,  so  that  at  the  time  of  purchase  the  survey  could  be 
said  to  be  made  in  their  presence  and  with  their  consent.  If, 
moreover,  the  council  refused  the  grant,  he  promised  to  under- 
take to  get  it  in  England  with  the  aid  of  the  patentee's  friends, 
a  somewhat  inconsistent  proceeding,  while  he  cheerfully  prom- 
ised to  undertake  the  journey  made  necessary  by  the  new 
royal  regulation,  requiring  the  governor  to  purchase  all  lands 
from  the  Indians  in  person.  Again,  doubting  the  good  humour 
of  the  council,  he  urged  Johnson  himself  to  obtain  his  Majesty's 
order  for  the  lands  he  wished,  thus  being  enabled  to  hold  them 
in  his  own  name  and,  probably,  free  of  quit-rents  for  ten  years 
like  the  grants  of  the  reduced  officers;  while  at  another  time 
he  suggested  that,  as  the  king  was  resolved  not  to  grant  twenty 
thousand  acres  to  one  person,  he  might,  if  his  tract  was  more, 
think  of  some  other  name  for  part  of  it,  according  to  the  method 
of  some  of  the  great  men  in  England.  But  these  very  slight 
departures  from  the  strict  letter  of  the  law  in  the  cause  of  friend- 
ship are  really  but  proofs  of  his  clean  administration,  and,  if 
he  did  not  use  as  much  ingenuity  for  the  benefit  of  the  casual 
patentee,  he  devoted  himself  with  energy  to  his  satisfaction. 

Yet  it  must  have  been  irritating  business.  One  day  General 
Gage,  now  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  American  army, 
would  write  proposing  that  in  granting  lands  to  the  reduced 
officers  Colden  would  do  so  on  the  proviso  that  the  Crown 
Point  and  Ticonderoga  garrisons  have  the  perpetual  privilege 
of  cutting  down  what  trees  might  be  necessary  to  supply  them 
with  wood.  But  it  practically  would  never  be  necessary  to 
touch  the  trees  on  these  tracts,  when  acres  of  woodland  unfit 
for  cultivation  were  likely  to  remain  ungranted  for  generations 
on  the  borders  of  the  lake.    Then  Skene,  who,  as  has  been  said. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  93 

had  received  a  grant  of  25,000  acres  from  the  council,  came  back 
from  England  with  an  order  from  the  king  for  20,000,  obvi- 
ously having  said  nothing  of  the  former  grant.  Again,  Golden 
heard  that  Lieutenant  Donald  Campbell,  son  of  that  LaughUn 
Campbell  who  had  indirectly  given  him  much  annoyance  some 
years  before,  had  a  similar  grant  for  30,000  acres,  though  he 
had  himself  given  him  10,000  acres  before  he  left  for  England 
as  well  as  the  2000  to  which  he  was  entitled  as  a  reduced  officer. 
Hence  he  concluded  that  he  had  received  the  additional  grant 
under  false  pretenses,  backed,  probably,  by  the  libels  in  Smith's 
history  and  by  Smith  himself,  who,  as  Campbell's  agent,  had 
dragged  the  old-time  differences  into  another  generation.* 
Colden  had  taken  far  more  pleasure  in  granting  47,500  acres 
to  Campbell's  deluded  followers.^  Next,  Governor  Wentworth 
wrote  asking  for  the  release  of  four  New  Hampshire  men  who 
had  been  arrested  by  the  sheriff  of  Albany.  Considering  that 
Colden  had,  on  December  28,  1763,  issued  a  proclamation 
requiring  all  judges,  justices,  and  other  civil  officers  within 
the  limits  contested  by  New  Hampshire,  to  continue  to  exer- 
cise jurisdiction  to  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  and  enjoining 
the  high  sheriff  of  Albany  County  to  return  the  names  of  all 
holding  under  New  Hampshire  west  of  the  river;  considering 
that  the  arrested  men  had  actually  dispossessed  three  New 
York  landholders;  and  considering  also  that  two  of  these  had 
occupied  the  land  more  than  thirty  years,  except  when  Indian 
incursions  had  forced  a  temporary  absence,  and  that  all  three 
held  under  a  grant  of  1683,  a  date  early  enough  in  itself  to 
answer  New  Hampshire's  claim,  this  was  an  unreasonable  re- 
quest. Colden,  therefore,  upheld  by  his  council,  refused  it.^  Still 
again,  came  an  order  from  England,  directing  that  no  more 
grants  be  made  on  the  east  side  of  the  "waters,"*  because,  it 

^  See  "  A  Colonial  Politician,"  p.  128.  »  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  358. 

^  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  346.  *  Lakes  Charaplain  and  George. 


94  Cadwallader  Colden 

was  suddenly  feared,  they  might  conflict  with  certain  "conces- 
sions" made  at  the  surrender  of  Canada  to  M.  Michel  Chartier 
de  Lotbiniere.  It  was  in  this  region  that  New  York  surveyors 
had  spent  a  busy  summer  laying  out  lands  for  reduced  officers 
whose  patents  would  have  soon  passed  the  seals;  it  was  here 
that  they  had  discovered  many  indications  that  New  Hampshire, 
having  passed  over  a  fair  and  unsettled  territory,  had  been  sur- 
veying just  before  them ;  it  was  here  that  the  most  considerable 
pass  between  the  king's  old  and  new  subjects  lay ;  and  Colden, 
with  as  much  indignation  as  he  ever  permitted  himself  to  show 
when  writing  to  his  superiors,  asked  whether  it  was  better  that 
French,  rather  than  English,  officers  should  block  the  way; 
while  he  "suspected"  that  the  old  soldiers  would  with  justice 
"clamour  loudly,"^  when  they  learned  of  their  delayed  satis- 
faction. 

It  was  about  this  time  also  that  Colden  was  keenly  hurt  by 
a  royal  proclamation  requiring  all  officers,  on  pain  of  removal 
or  prosecution,  to  receive  or  demand  for  their  services  only 
those  fees  established  by  proper  authority.^  This  was  followed 
by  a  demand  for  a  record  of  the  land  grants,  and,  despite  the 
extra  expense  and  time,  not  to  speak  of  the  labour,  involved, 
with  no  hope  of  adequate  return,  work  on  the  latter  was  begun 
at  once,  while  Colden  ordered  all  administrative  and  judicial 
officers  to  report  fully  on  the  fees  taken  in  their  respective 
offices,  giving  their  authority  for  the  amount.  When  these 
had  all  come  in  he  wrote  to  the  Board  of  Trade  inclosing  them 
and  freeing  his  mind  of  certain  reflections.'  The  request  had 
been  general,  but  significant  emphasis  had  been  laid  on  fees 
received  by  the  governor  for  land,  and  it  was  with  special  inter- 
est he  considered  these  and  the  fees  of  the  surveyor  general. 
When,  as  a  young  man,  he   had  first  become  so  unexpectedly 

*  Colden's  Letter  Books,  I,  366.  ^  Ibid.,  343. 

^  Ibid.,  340-343  and  348;   also  386-390. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  95 

interested  in  the  subject,  there  had  not  been  a  single  map  or 
a  single  register  of  survey  in  the  office.  It  was  hence  impossible 
to  make  a  complete  rent  roll,  and,  as  he  had  no  salary  but  his 
fees,  he  could  only  try  to  clear  up  the  situation  for  himself  as 
he  went  along.  Then  came  Burnet  with  his  generous  enthusi- 
asm, and  Golden  was  soon  happy  with  a  salary  given  him  for 
this  purpose  out  of  the  quit-rents.  He  at  once  commenced 
with  all  the  energy  he  could  spare  to  make  extracts  of  the  grants 
in  the  secretary's  office,  but  before  he  had  gone  farther  than 
the  year  1707,  one  of  the  big  proprietors,  scenting  danger,  had 
given  the  auditor  general  information  of  what  was  going  on. 
The  result  was  an  instruction  forbidding  the  governor  to  use 
the  quit-rents  for  any  purpose  whatever.  Since  that  time  he 
as  surveyor  general  had  been  entirely  without  salary,  and  his 
experience  had  been  such  that,  as  he  had  already  said,  he  would 
gladly  resign  his  fees  for  almost  any  settled  amount.  Again, 
as  acting  governor,  he  had  taken  the  usual  fees,  or  rather,  half 
of  them;  but  surely  no  one  could  consider  255.  per  thousand 
acres  exorbitant  when  he  remembered,  first,  the  size  of  the  aver- 
age patent,  and,  second,  that  this  fee  included  the  Hcense  to  pur- 
chase, the  warrant  for  the  survey,  the  inspection  of  the  return, 
the  signing  of  the  preliminary  certificate,  and  the  warrant  to 
the  attorney  general  to  draw  up  letters  patent.  Besides,  if  the 
patent  failed  before  actually  coming  to  the  seals,  the  governor 
got  nothing  at  all.  There  remained  another  point  to  be  an- 
swered, and,  shortly  afterward,  without  waiting  for  the  secretary 
to  get  at  them  in  order.  Golden  sent  an  abstract  of  the  grants 
in  his  own  administration,  in  order  to  refute  the  charge  that 
his  own  family  had  come  in  for  a  lion's  share.^  By  this  abstract, 
it  appeared  that  out  of  thirty  children  and  grandchildren  only 
three  had  received  grants  from  him,  and  these  had  been  grants 
of  land  long  since  bought  of  the  Indians.    It  was  true  that  the 

'  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  401.  ij 


96  Cadwallader  Golden 

grants  of  his  administration  were  more  in  number  than  usual, 
but  many  were  for  lands  bought  and  petitioned  for  in  Delancey's 
day,  the  petitioners  having  been  deterred  from  completing  the 
necessary  steps,  first,  by  the  bad  temper  of  the  Indians  preced- 
ing the  war  and  then  by  the  war  itself.  Indeed,  out  of  fifty- 
five  grants  but  thirteen  had  originated  in  his  administration, 
the  twenty-four  already  issued  to  reduced  officers  and  the 
great  number  in  preparation  for  the  same  class  of  recipients 
being  the  result  of  proclamations  with  which  he  had  really 
had  nothing  to  do. 

But  while  he  considered  his  own  record  clear  in  relation  to 
the  king's  lands,  he  became  daily  more  convinced  that  the 
abuses  connected  therewith  were  responsible  for  political  and 
social  conditions  in  the  colony.  The  assembly  had  just  created 
a  stir  by  an  address  disputing,  in  a  fashion  that  was  spirited  to 
say  the  least,  the  mere  suggestion  of  the  right  of  Parliament  to 
tax  the  colonies,  and  Golden  affirmed  that  their  attitude  was 
directly  due  to  the  great  provincial  landlords.  Three  of  these 
still  claimed  about  a  million  acres  each,  and  several  about  two 
hundred  thousand,  yet  all  this  land  had  been  granted  without 
previous  survey,  and  their  claims  were  based  on  patents  contain- 
ing no  mention  of  the  quantity  of  land  granted.  Moreover, 
these  patents  paid  a  diminutive  quit-rent;  the  greatest  part  of 
them  was  still  unsurveyed,  and  uncertainty  kept  smaller  settlers 
from  their  neighbourhood.  The  proprietors  of  three  of  these 
patents  were  practically  hereditary  members  of  assembly. 
Their  manors  carried  the  privilege  of  a  representative,  while 
the  influence  of  the  remaining  great  patentees  in  their  several 
counties  sent  them  to  the  capital  again  and  again.  It  was,  of 
course,  to  their  interest  to  have  things  remain  as  they  were. 
They  paid  small  quit-rents,  or  taxes,  or  none  at  all,  while  the  small 
farmer,  with  his  cultivated  fields,  was  rated  according  to  every 
"  hoi^^e,  cow,  ox,  hog,"  and  every  acre  of  land  he  possessed.     But, 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  07 

according  to  Golden,  the  taxation  proposed  by  Great  Britain 
would  divide  the  burden  far  more  easily,  and  the  big  holders, 
dreading  this,  had  issued  their  propaganda  of  liberty  and  privi- 
lege to  blind  their  poor  dupes  to  their  real  interests/  For  this 
reason,  too,  he  saw  in  their  opposition  to  appeals  a  guilty 
knowledge  of  the  results,  should  some  of  the  suits  in  which 
they  and  their  lands  were  concerned  be  brought  before  king 
and  council,  where,  instead  of  being  the  judges  and  lawyers 
themselves,  or  closely  connected  with  those  that  were,  they 
would  be  treated  no  better  than  any  other  freeman.  For  this 
reason,  he  sincerely  beUeved  that  appeals  were  the  sole  security 
of  the  people  against  the  lawyers,  some  of  which  profession 
were  always  on  hand  to  buy  up  every  disputed  title. 

Interesting  object  lessons  and  convenient  examples  of  this 
sohdarity  of  the  legal  fraternity  and  their  rich  patrons  were 
always  ready.  In  1764,  for  instance,  a  number  of  poor  in- 
dustrious farmers,  paying  the  required  quit-rents  on  their 
lands,  petitioned  Golden  for  the  king's  help  in  the  defence  of 
their  titles  against  the  proprietors  of  Minnisink  and  Wawayanda. 
Golden,  as  was  to  be  expected,  took  up  their  cause  vigorously. 
It  was  their  labour,  he  said,  that  had  made  the  country  a  place 
to  live  in  and  of  use  to  the  province  at  large ;  they  had  defended 
it  against  the  savage;  and  now,  when  there  was  peace  at  last, 
they  were  in  danger  of  losing  their  reward.  He  was  therefore 
eager  that  their  grasping  neighbours  be  prosecuted  by  the  at- 
torney general  on  the  score  that  their  patents  were  not  valid, 
but  he  humbly  submitted  the  propriety  of  his  judgment  to  those 
who  were  "skilled  in  the  law. "^  He  was  fighting  more  vigor- 
ously still  the  patent  of  Kayaderosseres  '  in  the  Mohawk  Valley. 
This  patent  was  derived  from  a  deed  made  by  three  Indians, 
but  only  two  of  them  had  executed  it,  and  these  were  not  parties 
to  the  deed ;  nor  was  their  tribe  mentioned,  although,  according 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  361-364.       '  Ibid.,  I,  402-404.         '  Ibid.,  392-394. 

H 


98  Cadwallader  Colden 

to  Indian  custom,  the  tribe  alone  owned,  and  could  give  or  sell, 
land.  But  there  were  many  other  irregularities.  The  three 
Indians  made  good  use  of  EngHsh  miles  when  at  that  time,  at 
any  rate,  they  must  have  been  ignorant  of  their  length;  the 
bounds  were  fixed  in  part  by  an  unknown  hill  and  river;  and 
by  the  map  in  Colden 's  possession  it  was  evident  that  the  land 
claimed  could  not  by  any  construction  be  contained  within 
the  description  of  the  land  sold  by  the  patentees,  which  formed 
but  a  small  part  of  the  whole.  Besides,  there  were  no  settle- 
ments or  improvements  on  it  whatever,  and  although  the  grant 
was  made  unconditionally,  Colden  thought  them  a  tacit  con- 
dition of  all  grants.  Still  another  factor  in  the  situation  was  the 
feehng  of  the  Indians  themselves,  who  refused  to  recognize  the 
deed  at  all.  Yet  when  Colden 's  efforts  at  last  brought  an 
order  from  the  Board  of  Trade  directing  him  to  get  the  patent 
annulled,  and  he  had  accordingly  sent  a  message  to  the  assem- 
bly, they  refused  his  request.  This  he  had  expected ;  but  when 
they  added  a  proposition  that  Johnson  use  his  influence  to 
reconcile  the  Indians,  he  was  indignant.  "This  is  another 
low  insinuation  that  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Indians  arises 
from  you,"  he  wrote  Sir  Wilham.  Johnson,  however,  felt 
under  no  obhgation  to  follow  the  council's  suggestion,  and, 
truly  alarmed  at  the  reported  excitement  of  the  Indians  over 
some  settlements  begun  on  the  patent,  they  advised  Colden  to 
issue  a  writ  of  scire  facias  against  the  patentees.  "You  can 
tell  the  Indians,"  wrote  Colden  himself,  "that  both  you  and  I 
have  done  all  in  our  power  and  that  justice  will  be  done  but 
tell  them  that  even  the  King  cannot  do  justice  to  himself  or  to 
his  most  beloved  subjects  except  through  the  courts,  which  is 
a  slow  but  effectual  and  certain  method.  If  I  was  one  of  them, 
and  I  was  adopted  by  the  Canajoharies  many  years  since,  I 
could  not  do  more  than  I  have  done  for  their  rights  but  I  never 
was  able  to  do  so  much  as  now." 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  99 

Colden  was  of  the  opinion  that  once  in  the  courts  the  case 
would  drag  on  for  years.  But  he  was  to  hear  more  of  the  many- 
syllabled  patent  before  as  many  months.  Late  in  1764,  a  Mr. 
O'Brien,  whose  wife  was  a  cousin  of  the  Foxes  and  the  life- 
long intimate  of  the  celebrated  Lady  Sarah  Lennox,  came  over 
to  New  York  with  Lady  Susan,  in  order  to  find  a  suitable 
location  for  a  grant  of  100,000  acres  given  by  the  king  to 
Lord  Holland,  the  Earl  of  Ilchester,  a  Mr.  Upton,  and 
himself.  Colden,  according  to  directions  which  he  had  re- 
ceived, introduced  them  to  the  surveyor  general,  and  all  four 
agreed  apparently  that  the  best  place  for  it  was  on  the  east  of 
"  the  waters,"  provided  the  French  concessions  did  not  interfere 
and  always  excepting  Kayaderosseres.  If  that  patent  should  be 
vacated,  Mr.  O'Brien  was  told,  it  would  be  still  better.  For 
this  reason,  and  because  he  was  being  "greatly  tized"  by  the 
still  waiting  reduced  officers,  Colden  earnestly  begged  some 
decision  on  Chartrier's  claims.  Mr.  O'Brien,  however,  who 
had  wanted  his  tract  on  the  Mohawk  until  he  had  been  told 
that  was  impossible,  was  really  dissatisfied,  and  the  next  April 
Colden  was  greatly  chagrined  to  receive  a  letter  from  the  Earl 
of  Hillsborough,  Secretary  of  State, ^  accusing  him  of  bad  faith 
in  the  matter,  a  charge  against  which  he  hastened  to  defend  him- 
self. The  cultivation  of  hemp,  he  declared,  was  the  sole  means 
by  which  such  a  large  tract  could  be  made  to  pay.  He  had  there- 
fore advised  the  grant  of  the  only  land  fit  for  this  purpose  still  re- 
maining in  the  crown,  with  the  exception  of  the  new  lands  lately 
thrown  open  on  the  Connecticut.  He  had,  besides,  misunder- 
stood Mr.  O'Brien,  thinking  he  had  asked  for  already  settled 
lands  on  the  Mohawk  near  Canajoharie,  whereas,  it  now  seemed, 
he  had  wanted  the  land  that  had  been  given  by  the  Indians  to 
Sir  William  Johnson,  but  never  confirmed  by  the  crown,  a  tract 
extending  from  the  river  opposite  Canajoharie  Castle  to  Canada 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  5-8. 


icx>  Cadwallader  Colden 

Kill.  He  had  himself,  he  went  on,  advised  Johnson  to  apply 
directly  to  the  king  for  his  grant,  but  the  Indian  outbreak  had 
prevented  such  an  appHcation  until  the  previous  autumn,  when 
Colden  had  been  particularly  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  a 
good  map  of  the  region,  and  he  hoped  to  have  one  ready  for  the 
next  packet.  Such  a  map  would,  of  course,  illuminate  the  situa- 
tion considerably,  all  of  which,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  rather 
a  neat  bit  of  special  pleading  on  the  part  of  the  much-disturbed, 
lieutenant-governor,  who  had  nevertheless  been  relieved  to  find 
"that  soothing  kind  appellation  of  fellow  servant  in  the  latter 
part"  of  Hillsborough's  letter. 

But  it  was  not  pleading  for  himself.  "Major  Skene,  who  is 
lately  return'd,"  he  had  written  Johnson,  "said  the  Board  of 
Trade  think  it  improper  for  you  to  take  any  Land  by  Gift  from 
the  Indians.  Some  who  have  obtain 'd  the  King's  Grants,  in 
this  Province  have  had  their  Eyes  turn'd  on  your  Patent,  by 
some  of  your  back  friends,"  *  and  his  "back  friends"  had  so  far 
been  successful.  The  council  also,  to  whom  Colden  had  at 
last  presented  the  case,  had  answered  his  expectations  and 
refused  confirmation  of  the  gift  because  it  was  against  the 
instructions  to  grant  so  much  to  any  one  man;  because  John- 
son had  received  no  license  to  purchase  the  land;  and  because 
several  licenses  of  the  sort  had  been  granted  for  the  region, 
though  they  had  never  been  used.  As  usual,  Colden  was  per- 
sistent and  wrote  home  again.  His  Majesty  had  overstepped 
the  limits  for  others,  he  said,  and  why  not  for  a  servant  of  John- 
son's value,  who  had  taken  no  advantage  of  the  Indians,  as  he 
so  easily  might  have  done ;  who  held  only  such  lands  as  he  had 
bought  from  settlers,  and  to  whom  the  Indians  had  given  this 
tract  as  a  debt  of  gratitude.  It  had,  however,  cost  him 
1 200  pieces  of  eight  besides  the  survey.  But  before  this 
letter  had  gone,  owing  to  delay  in  the  arrival  of  this  survey, 
*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  442. 


A   Colonial  Surveyor  General  loi 

which  was  to  be  used  as  evidence,  Colden  had  learned  that  it 
was  the  very  land  that  O'Brien  wanted.  The  latter,  however, 
had  now  gone  with  Lady  Susan  to  visit  Johnson  himself,  and 
Colden  hoped  much  from  their  mutual  explanations.  "It  will 
be  impossible,"  he  wrote  Sir  Wilham,  "for  you  to  please  both 
the  Indians  and  the  Patentees  of  the  great  Tracts.  I  believe 
not  one  of  the  great  Tracts  were  fairly  purchased.  Those  of 
them  which  are  settled  &  where  the  Indians  have  long  desisted 
from  making  any  Claim,  are  very  different  from  the  others 
where  no  settlements  are  made  and  where  the  Indians  have  at 
all  times  asserted  their  right.  In  these  cases  there  is  no  other 
Rule  but  to  do  justice  to  the  Indians,  &  to  dispise  Calumny 
which  no  good  man  could  ever  avoid."  ^ 

Their  lordships,  it  seems,  also  wanted  some  land  between 
New  York  and  Albany,  but  a  possible  vacancy  in  Claverack 
patent  was  the  only  one  of  which  Colden  knew.  Here  Van 
Rensselaer  claimed  170,000  acres,  on  some  of  which  several 
government  officers  had  cast  an  envious  eye  four  years 
before.  Colden  had  allowed  two  or  more  of  his  children  to 
join  them,  and  the  syndicate  had  petitioned  the  council  for 
one  thousand  acres  each.  But  the  petition  had  been  refused 
until  Van  Rensselaer's  claim  had  been  settled,  and  the  same 
answer  had  been  returned  the  preceding  summer  to  certain 
reduced  officers,  tired  of  waiting  for  the  Champlain  grants,  in 
whose  behalf  Colden  had  written  the  Board  of  Trade.  These 
officers  had  suggested  that  Van  Rensselaer's  domain  be  cut 
down  by  23,000  acres,  and,  according  to  the  case  drawn  up 
by  the  attorney  general,  wrote  Colden,  this  was  only  fair. 
For,  while  Van  Rensselaer's  patent  gave  the  width  of  his  pur- 
chase as  twenty-four  miles,  it  gave  its  Hmits  as  the  Hudson 
and  Waneamiaquasick,  the  latter  being  a  well-known  "Monu- 
ment," or  heap  of  stones,  just  nine  and  three-quarters  miles 

*  Ibid.,  II,  17-21. 


I02  Cadwallader  Colden 

from  the  river.  Yet,  he  added,  the  men  drawing  it  up,  deceived 
as  to  the  distance  by  the  wild  character  of  the  country,  covered 
with  woods  and  swamps,  with  hills  to  climb  and  rivers  to  ford, 
might  have  made  their  error  in  all  good  faith.  But  the  fact 
remained  that  both  distance  and  limits  could  not  stand,  and  it 
were  better  to  retain  the  latter,  as  otherwise  one  long  side  of  the 
patent  would  be  left  without  bounds.^ 

One  gratification  the  year  had  brought.  The  writs  of  in- 
trusion that  Colden  had  ordered  filed  against  persons  taking 
up  land  in  Minnisink  patent  had  had  excellent  effect,  some 
proprietors  submitting  without  even  coming  to  court  and  pray- 
ing regular  grants  at  the  usual  quit-rents,  "One  instance  of 
what  may  be  done  by  vigorous  measures,"  wrote  Colden. 
Another  thing  he  also  succeeded  in  settHng  satisfactorily. 
Having  received  an  order  from  the  king  to  grant  100,000 
acres  to  a  Lieutenant  James  McDonald,  he  was  checked 
in  his  natural  procedure  by  the  knowledge  that  John 
Morin  Scott  and  Oliver  Delancey,  both  members  of  council, 
had  filed  a  caveat  against  the  grant  and  that  two-thirds  of  the 
council  were  interested  in  some  measure  in  the  case.  Accord- 
ingly he  asked  the  attorney  general  whether  the  king's  order 
in  council  was  under  the  control  of  the  council  of  New  York 
or  whether  the  governor  could  make  the  grant  alone.^  Kempe, 
after  an  ambiguous  answer  and  a  second  request,  replied  in 
the  affirmative;  Colden,  after  reading  the  caveat  carefully, 
decided  the  land  was  in  the  crown;  and  the  deputy-secretary 
was  ordered  to  prepare  letters  patent  accordingly. 

Meanwhile  the  boundary  question  remained  unchanged. 
Some  time  before  Colden  had  sent  Charles  some  heads  of  argu- 
ments on  the  subject,  thus  giving  him,  as  he  said,  an  oppor- 
tunity of  recommending  himself  to  his  Majesty's  ministers  as 
well  as  of  serving  New  York ;   and  whether  from  this  or  other 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  377-378;   II,  10,  n.  '  Ibid-^  24,  25. 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  103 

reasons  the  king  at  length  gave  the  subject  the  attention  it 
deserved  and,  after  several  announcements  of  its  coming,  early 
in  1765  his  order  arrived,  making  the  Connecticut  River  New 
York's  eastern  boundary.  The  same  winter  the  New  York 
assembly,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  passed 
an  act  for  commissioners  to  settle  the  affair  with  Massachusetts, 
and  sent  their  acts  to  the  sister  colony  asking  her  comphance. 
But  nothing  had  been  heard  from  her  by  the  next  July,  when 
her  governor  wrote  complaining  of  trespasses  made  by  Living- 
ston. "I  cannot  prevent  any  Man's  taking  what  legal  steps  he 
thinks  proper  for  securing  his  own  Rights,"  wrote  Colden, 
"and  if  illegal  steps  should  be  taken  our  Courts  of  justice  are 
open  for  relief.  However  I  shall  do  what  is  in  my  power  to 
preserve  the  peace  in  that  part  of  the  country  without  any 
Byass  in  favour  of  Mr  Livingston."  But  the  events  of  the 
autumn  of  1765  were  of  so  exciting  a  nature  that,  for  the  moment 
at  least,  men's  minds  were  distracted  from  personal  concerns, 
save  in  so  far  as  they  were  affected  by  what  was  going  on  around 
them.  Land,  which  in  New  York  might  always  have  been 
spelled  with  a  capital  letter,  had  lost  its  fascination,  and  by  the 
time  effigies  had  ceased  to  swing  from  gibbets  and  the  shouting 
of  mobs  to  be  a  familiar  sound,  Colden  was  settled  at  his 
Flushing  country-seat,  and  affairs  of  state  were  being  managed 
by  another  imported  Englishman.  As  usual,  he  wanted  to 
make  the  best  of  a  probably  brief  period  of  power,  and  when 
certain  settlers  in  the  contested  territory,  now  declared  on 
royal  authority  to  be  New  York,  appUed  according  to  Colden 's 
invitation  for  free  confirmation  of  the  grants  they  had  received 
from  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  he  refused  them  without 
the  usual  fees.  These  were  paid  by  one  grantee  at  least,  but 
many  others  appealed  to  the  king,  while  there  were  still  others 
who  objected  to  being  New  York  men  at  any  price,  and  Colden 
had  scarcely  become  established  again  in  the  governor's  chair, 


I04  Cadwallader  C olden 

four  years  later,  when  a  number  of  these,  who  had  settled  m 
Albany  County  between  "the  hight  of  Land  usually  called  the 
Green  Mountain  "and  the  Hudson,  and  who  had  chosen  magis- 
trates, or  "  selectmen,"  in  true  New  England  fashion,  offered 
armed  resistance  to  the  partition  of  the  tract  of  land  called  Wal- 
lomscack  and  granted  in  1739.  The  commissioners  of  the  New 
York  legislature  produced  their  powers,  the  civil  authorities 
threatened  a  posse,  but  the  rioters  said  they  could  outnumber 
the  posse  and  would  defend  their  claims  to  the  last  drop  of  their 
blood.  "The  event  might  have  been  fatal,"  wrote  Colden  to 
the  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  "had  not  the  Commissioners 
apprehensive  for  the  safety  of  their  Persons  declined  the  further 
execution  of  their  ofhce."  "  Proper  measures  are  directed  (by 
this  government)  to  bring  the  offenders  to  Punishment,"  he 
added,  "  (and)  In  your  Excellency's  power  it  may  be  to  convince 
these  rash  People  of  their  Delusion,  by  making  it  pubHc  that 
they  cannot  expect  your  Countenance  or  Protection."  Indi- 
rectly the  Revolution  had  begun,  and  from  this  year  1 769  until 
their  feat  at  Ticonderoga,  the  "Green  Mountain  boys"  gave 
Colden  and,  for  a  time,  Tryon  almost  continual  anxiety. 

Nor  were  the  old  difficulties  lessened.  As  late  as  June,  1774, 
Colden  was  writing  to  Dartmouth,  then  Secretary  of  State,  con- 
cerning Colonel  Skene's  claims  and  quit-rents;  at  the  same 
time  he  was  worrying  over  certain  new  instructions  which 
seemed  to  him  calculated  to  cut  out  those  still  unsettled  reduced 
officers;  while  even  in  1775,  though  Johnson  was  dead,  the 
Indians  were  still  complaining  through  his  son  of  the  same 
tormentors  and  the  same  ill-treatment.  But  the  end  had  come 
at  last,  confirming  Colden 's  warnings  and  rendering  all  his 
plans  and  accomplishments  of  no  account.  The  life-work  of 
the  administrators  of  an  overthrown  government  is  seldom  a 
subject  for  enthusiasm  and,  however  well  done,  must  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  be  considered  unsuccessful.     No  country 


A  Colonial  Surveyor  General  105 

to-day  points  with  pride  at  Golden  as  the  first  man  to  make  a 
science  of  the  care  of  its  lands,  yet  the  country  whose  begin- 
nings he  so  heartily  condemned  might  still  learn  something 
from  this  phase  of  the  career  of  one  who,  without  just  accusation 
of  hypocrisy,  brought  an  atmosphere  of  high-mindedness  into 
the  execution  of  an  office  where  graft  was  prevalent  and  who, 
in  his  treatment  of  a  conquered  race,  left  an  example  that  has 
found  few,  if  any,  followers  in  high  places. 


A   COLONIAL   POLITICIAN 


As  every  student  of  our  early  history  knows,  in  those  English 
colonies  known  as  the  "Royal  Provinces,"  the  officials  next  in 
rank  to  the  governor  were  the  members  of  his  council.  Their 
influence,  indeed,  might  be  greater  than  his  own.  It  is  true  he 
had  power  to  suspend  them  from  the  exercise  of  their  functions, 
but  his  suspension  had  to  be  confirmed  at  home,  and  so  short 
was  his  average  stay  that  his  successor  would  as  likely  as  not  be 
urging  the  restoration  of  the  suspended  councillor  before  the 
easy-going  ministry  had  considered  his  own  action.  But  un- 
less he  made  himself  extremely  disagreeable,  a  councillor  was 
usually  a  councillor  for  life.  As  such,  he  was  at  once  a  member 
of  the  upper  house  of  the  legislature  and  of  the  governor's  privy 
council.  As  legislator,  he  could,  with  his  fellows,  originate, 
amend,  and  defeat  legislation,  while  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  councillors  were  necessary  to  the  greater  part  of  the  execu- 
tive functions,  —  the  issuing  of  proclamations,  the  granting  of 
lands,  the  regulating  of  the  army,  the  laying  of  embargoes,  the 
ordering  of  Indian  affairs.  Moreover,  with  the  governor,  they 
constituted  the  highest  court  in  the  colony  to  which  in  cases 
of  importance  appeals  were  permitted  from  the  other  courts. 

In  return  for  this  actual  power  and  the  attendant  social  dis- 
tinction, they  were  supposed  in  an  especial  manner  to  be  the 
guardians  of  the  strength  and  influence  of  the  crown.  And  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  though  their  loyalty  was  frequently  as  question- 

io6 


A  Colonial  Politician  107 

able  as  that  of  their  brothers  of  the  popular  branch  of  the  legis- 
lature, they  might  in  general  be  depended  on  to  resist  encroach- 
ments on  the  prerogative,  because  it  was  to  their  own  interest  to 
do  so.  Occasionally,  however,  a  councillor  would  take  his  obli- 
gations seriously,  and  of  these  no  more  notable  example  can 
be  cited  than  the  Scotch  physician,  Cadwallader  Golden. 

A  recent  historian  of  the  Scotch-Irish  in  America  has  pointed 
out  that  they  were  not  good  Tory  material,  and  that  almost  to 
a  man  they  cast  in  their  fortunes  with  the  rebellious  colonists. 
To  this  rule  Golden  is  an  exception.  Of  Scotch-Irish  stock, 
born  in  Ireland  and  educated  in  Scotland,  the  son  and  the  son- 
in-law  of  Scotch  ministers,  no  firmer  believer  in  the  divine 
authority  of  kings  ever  held  office.  The  development  of  his 
aggressive  conservatism  is  somewhat  obscure.  Goming  to 
America  at  twenty-two,  he  had  seen  nothing  of  political  life  in 
his  own  country;  and  it  was  only  on  a  visit  home  that  he  shared 
in  the  excitement  of  1 7 1 5 ,  —  "  //fe  ' 1 5  "  of  the  Scotchman,  —  and 
raised  a  body  of  volunteers  to  check  the  march  of  the  Pretender 
through  the  Lowlands.  Moreover,  though  in  Philadelphia 
where  he  had  first  settled,  he  had  been  in  the  official  set  and 
intimate  with  the  governor,  his  interest  in  colonial  poHtics  had 
been  mainly  sympathetic,  until,  in  1718,  he  moved  to  the  Httle 
city  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  still  very  Dutch,  despite  fifty 
years  of  English  rule. 

The  move  had  been  undertaken  in  response  to  the  offer  by 
the  Scotch  governor  of  New  York  of  the  position  of  master  in 
chancery  with  the  reversion  of  the  office  of  surveyor  general. 
But  Golden  had  scarcely  become  famihar  with  his  new  environ- 
ment when  his  patron  sailed,  leaving  the  administration  in  the 
hands  of  an  influential  opponent,  Philip  Schuyler,  the  president 
of  the  council.  And  this  change  in  turn  had  scarcely  been  ac- 
compUshed  when  the  acting  surveyor  general  died  and  Schuy- 
ler promptly  turned  over  the  office  to  one  of  his  own  party. 


io8  Cadwallader  Colden 

However,  Governor  Hunter's  influence  was  still  paramount,  and 
in  a  surprisingly  short  time  Schuyler's  appointment  was  quashed 
and  the  promise  to  Colden  fulfilled. 

But  Colden  neither  forgave  nor  forgot.  Years  after  Schuy- 
ler's death  he  transmitted  to  his  son,  in  the  hope  that  it  might 
meet  the  eye  of  the  future  historian,  a  description  of  his  old 
enemy  full  of  unalloyed  bitterness,  while  at  the  time  he  flung 
himself  into  an  arraignment  of  Schuyler's  administration  of 
the  Land  Ofiice  that  helped  largely  to  bring  about  his  sus- 
pension from  the  council.  When,  moreover,  his  influence  had 
been  strengthened  by  the  arrival  of  a  new  and  friendly  governor 
and  by  his  own  appointment  to  the  council,  he  suddenly  dis- 
closed the  political  convictions  which  long  experience  never 
mellowed  nor  wide  knowledge  ever  broadened. 

He  had  found  that  the  crown  was  being  cheated  right  and  left 
by  the  landed  proprietors,  and  he  proposed  that  such  cheating 
should  cease.  This  was  well.  But  he  made  the  fatal  mistake 
of  backing  his  proposition  by  pohtical  considerations.  The 
question  was  bound  to  be  brought  into  politics  some  day,  but  to 
bring  politics  into  the  question  was  a  different  matter.  And 
that  is  exactly  what  Colden  did.  It  was  certainly  reasonable 
enough  that  the  crown  should  collect  its  debts,  but  Colden 
thought  fit  to  add  that  it  was  also  necessary,  if  it  wished  to 
preserve  the  independence  of  its  officials  and  the  dependence 
of  its  subjects.  Colonial  officialdom,  he  wrote  home,  must  be 
supported  independently  of  the  people,  or  colonial  ofl5cialdom, 
in  its  present  form,  at  least,  might  have  to  fight  for  its 
existence. 

It  would  have  been  lucky  for  Colden,  and  for  others  too,  if 
he  had  realized  with  Walpole  that  "to  reconcile  is  perhaps  a 
more  amiable  virtue  in  a  patriot  than  to  reform."  ^    A  great 

*  Horace  Walpole's  "  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  King  George  the  Third," 
n,  p.  55- 


A  Colonial  Politician  109 

opportunity  for  such  peacemaking  was  to  be  his.  For  fifty 
years  he  was  to  be  in  touch  with  both  members  of  the  colonial 
equation,  a  colonist  among  other  colonists  and  an  official  of  the 
crown,  but  out  of  the  mass  of  documents  signed  by  his  name  or 
written  by  him  for  the  signature  of  another,  it  is  impossible  to 
see  any  sign  that  the  notion  of  compromise,  the  idea  that  "it  is 
the  kindest  way  of  ruling  men  to  govern  them  as  they  will  be 
governed,  not  as  they  ought  to  be,"  ^  ever  entered  his  mind.  An 
imperial  government,  so  perfectly  organized  and  so  firmly  ad- 
ministered that  its  most  distant  subjects  should  have  a  fixed 
place  and  be  made  to  keep  it,  was  his  ideal,  and  toward  this 
he  sought  to  guide  his  careless  superiors.  Accordingly,  his 
earliest  memorials  to  the  home  government  hinted  at  the  exist- 
ence in  New  York  of  a  community  of  such  doubtful  loyalty  that 
had  the  ministry  been  less  sleepy  they  would  have  been  alarmed. 
As  it  was,  they  were  temporarily  impressed,  and  alarming  reports 
of  their  possible  action  were  sent  over  from  London.  Theirs 
was  but  a  passing  concern,  however,  and  the  lasting  results  of 
Colden's  appeal  were  undesirable  from  all  points  of  view.  The 
great  landlords  were  fixed  in  the  ranks  of  that  shifting  group 
which  stood  for  the  future  Whig  party ;  Golden  himself  became 
exceedingly  unpopular  and  possessed  of  an  enduring  reputation 
for  tale-bearing  and  narrowness ;  and  the  idea  of  an  irrepressible 
conflict  between  an  unrestrained  assembly  and  a  sovereign  gov- 
ernment was  once  more  emphasized  suggestively. 

This  fixing  of  his  reputation  was  particularly  unfortunate, 
because  he  was  at  that  very  time  sharing  in  the  prosecution  of  a 
scheme  of  far-reaching  importance,  the  success  of  which  de- 
pended largely  on  the  influence  and  prestige  of  its  supporters. 
The  friendly  governor  who  had  succeeded  his  first  patron  was 
William  Burnet,  a  son  of  the  historian  Bishop,  and  a  man  of 
progressive  ideas,  who  even  before  his  arrival  in  the  colony  had 

ilbid. 


no 


Cadwallader  Colden 


formed  a  plan  by  which  he  was  certain  that  with  a  minimum  of 
effort  a  mortal  blow  could  be  struck  at  New  France.  It  often 
seemed,  indeed,  that  the  power  of  the  French  in  North  America 
had  no  reasonable  basis.  An  unfriendly  soil  had  not  invited 
men  seeking  their  fortunes,  and  the  troops  of  exiles  who  had 
fled  from  the  mother  country  did  not  find  themselves  still  her 
sons  as  did  those  from  England.  So  year  by  year  the  number 
and  population  of  her  settlements  remained  approximately  the 
same,  while  the  Englishmen  to  the  south  founded  new  villages 
and  saw  the  old  develop  into  prosperous  towns.  But  she  had 
her  own  advantages:  she  was  governed  by  one  tiny  group  of 
officials  in  the  colonial  capital;  her  forces  could  be  mobihzed 
quickly  for  a  given  purpose ;  and  her  people  —  soldiers,  priests, 
and  peasants  —  each  knew  in  their  own  way  that  the  key  to  the 
situation  was  in  their  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes  surrounding 
them.  From  the  beginning,  force,  treachery,  the  seductions  of 
trade,  and  the  warnings  of  religion  had  been  appHed  to  the 
problem  of  their  conquest,  and  by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  a  chain  of  forts  and  trading-posts  connected  the  St. 
Lawrence  with  the  Mississippi,  and  a  hold  had  been  gained  on 
the  Indians  of  the  West  that  endured  even  after  the  French  had 
been  driven  from  Canada. 

The  EngHsh,  on  the  other  hand,  had  inherited  Indian  rela- 
tions from  the  Dutch  which  at  first  made  counteraction  impos- 
sible. For  they  had  succeeded  to  the  friendship  of  the  Iroquois, 
who,  having  been  long-standing  enemies  of  the  Algonquins,  the 
original  allies  of  the  French,  had  included  the  French  and  all 
their  connections  in  their  hostihty  and  constituted  a  barrier 
beyond  which  the  EngHsh  could  not  go.  James  II,  indeed,  had 
effected  a  temporary  reconciliation,  but  his  motives  were  reli- 
gious, not  political,  and,  naturally  enough,  it  was  the  Catholic 
French  who  profited  thereby.  Certain  Mohawks  and  a  number 
of  River  Indians  were  won  over  to  Catholicism  and  went  to  live 


A  Colonial  Politician 


III 


near  Montreal/  and  then  an  English  trading  expedition  organ- 
ized in  all  good  faith  was  attacked  so  treacherously  that  the 
peace  was  declared  broken.^  Indeed,  the  English  colonists 
themselves  were  not  yet  particularly  eager  to  increase  their 
trade.  They  were  agriculturists  first  and  traders  next,  and  their 
own  Indians  consumed  their  surplus  imports.  This  condition 
was  somewhat  changed,  however,  when  in  the  war  called  Queen 
Anne's  a  treaty  was  negotiated  by  which  the  neutrality  of  the 
Indians  on  both  sides  was  secured.  Yet  again  it  was  the  French 
who  were  the  gainers  as  far  as  Indian  relations  went.  For 
when  intercourse  with  the  English  was  forbidden,  the  praying 
Indians,  in  other  words,  the  converted  Mohawks,  were  easily 
induced  to  run  the  risk  of  fetching  from  Albany  goods  for  the 
Indian  trade  which  it  was  impossible  to  procure  as  cheap  else- 
where. And  this  arrangement  proved  so  profitable  to  New 
York  merchant  and  French  trader  alike,  that  after  the  war  was 
over,  it  was  continued  and  the  Indians  with  their  long  crucifixes 
became  a  feature  of  the  frontier  settlement. 

Now  it  was  by  a  blow  at  this  very  trade  that  Burnet  proposed  to 
accompHsh  his  object.  Greater  faciUty  in  producing  the  goods 
desired,  a  shorter  and  less  difficult  voyage,  and  lighter  trade 
restrictions  made  it  seem  probable  to  him  that  the  Enghsh  trader 
could  so  undersell  the  French  as  to  put  him  out  of  competition, 
and  in  the  long  run  drive  his  countrymen  out  of  their  North 
American  possessions.  This  could  only  be  done,  however,  if 
the  French  were  kept  from  obtaining  English  goods  imported  by 
EngUsh  colonists.  And,  fortunately,  the  assembly  of  New  York, 
the  only  colony  which  could  hope  to  rival  the  French  in  the  Ind- 
ian trade,  passed  at  once  on  Burnet's  arrival  two  acts  looking 
to  this  end.  Of  these,  one  prohibited  trade  with  the  French 
under  heavy  penalties,  with  the  purpose  of  forcing  the  merchants 

*  This  defection  occurred  about  1671. 

^^  Smith's  "History  of  New  York"  (1829),  Vol.  I,  p.  69. 


112  Cadwallader  C  olden 

to  send  men  to  the  West;  the  other  levied  an  import  duty  in 
order  to  establish  a  fund  for  the  building  of  forts  through  the 
Indian  country.^ 

But  this  was  only  the  beginning.  Opposition  both  without 
and  within  was  to  be  met;  the  Indians  were  to  be  interested; 
the  people  were  to  be  shown  how  to  expand  their  trade.  Burnet 
set  about  his  work  with  enthusiastic  zeal.  Yet  he  soon  per- 
ceived that  he  could  not  fight  successfully  alone,  and  even  as  he 
felt  the  necessity  of  a  confidential  adviser,  of  some  one  of  sense 
and  ability,  in  active  sympathy  with  his  aims,  found  his  require- 
ments completely  met  by  the  surveryor  general.  In  one  of  his 
first  letters  home  he  suggested  him  as  a  desirable  councillor, 
proposing  for  a  second  vacancy  in  the  board  James  Alexander, 
another  Scotchman  and  Colden's  intimate  friend.  These  nomi- 
nations were  confirmed  in  1722,  and  thereafter  Colden  and,  to 
a  lesser  degree,  Alexander  had  much  to  do  with  the  development 
of  the  policy  of  the  New  York  government. 

This  policy  was  energetic  and  progressive.  A  small  trading 
house  was  built  in  the  wilderness  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Ontario  where  the  city  of  Oswego  now  stands,  and  a  picked 
company  of  seven  young  men  were  sent  to  take  it  in  change. 
Moreover,  when,  in  the  summer  of  1722  and  again  in  the  autumn 
of  the  next  year,  Burnet,  accompanied  by  Colden  and  other 
councillors,  went  to  Albany  for  the  periodic  renewal  of  the  alli- 
ance with  the  Iroquois,  he  gave  the  Indians  an  alluring  account 
of  the  advantages  of  the  post  and  urged  them  in  turn  to  spread 
the  news.  Results  followed  unexpectedly  soon.  Canoes  full 
of  strange  Indians  became  no  uncommon  sight  at  Oswego,  and 
many  even  ventured  as  far  as  Albany.  The  praying  Indians 
were  seen  no  more,  and  the  frontier  trader  began  to  send,  or  go 
himself,  to  the  West.     But  it  was  harder  work,  and  he  did  not 

*  "  Journal  of  the  Votes  and  Proceedings  of  the  General  Assembly"  of  the 
Province  of  New  York,  I,  p.  149. 


A  Colonial  Politician  113 

like  it.  Even  the  supporters  of  the  change  admitted  that  it 
would  probably  be  some  time  before  the  volume  of  the  new  trade 
with  the  "far  Indians"  equalled  the  old  trade  with  Canada. 
And,  finally,  it  had  been  necessary  to  lower  the  price  of  Indian 
goods  by  way  of  advertisement  and  inducement.  With  a  deaf 
ear  to  Burnet's  magnificent  possibilities  and  an  eye  to  their  own 
balance  sheets,  the  merchants  of  New  York  and  England  deter- 
mined that  the  acts  must  go.  In  the  summer  of  1724  they  ob- 
tained the  repeal  of  the  Import  Act,  though  it  had  the  approval 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  then  proceeded  to  attack  the  trade 
acts. 

Fortunately  enough,  it  happened  that  the  year  before,  Golden, 
at  Burnet's  request,  had  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  ministry 
two  papers,  one  on  the  trade,  the  other  on  the  climate  of  New 
York.^  The  first  was  a  fair-minded  attempt  to  show  Great 
Britain  that  restrictive  methods  with  her  colonies  would  be  bad 
poUcy,  as  what  was  to  their  interest  was  to  her  own,  and,  what- 
ever his  readers  thought  of  his  argument,  it  conveyed,  at  any 
rate,  some  much-needed  information.  For,  when  the  dealers 
and  manufacturers  of  London  and  Bristol  made  their  plea,  the 
board  was  sufficiently  enlightened  to  listen  with  incredulity. 
Suspending  judgment,  they  referred  it  to  the  governor  of  New 
York,  who  referred  it  to  his  council,  who,  finally,  reported,  with 
the  request  that  their  report,  the  proceedings  in  England  lead- 
ing thereto.  Dr.  Golden 's  map  of  the  country  between  New  York 
Gity  and  Montreal,  and  his  pamphlet  on  the  fur  trade,^  be 
printed  for  distribution.  The  merchants,  it  seemed,  had  claimed 
that  to  wrest  the  Western  trade  from  the  French  would  not  be 
to  give  it  to  the  English,  as  even  the  Five  Nations  lived  near 

*  New  York  Colonial  Documents,  V. 

'  "  A  Memorial  concerning  the  Fur  Trade  of  the  Province  of  New  York 
presented  to  His  Excellency  William  Burnet,  Esquire,  Captain  Generall  &  Gov- 
ernor &c     By  Cadwallader  Colden,  Surveyor  General  of  said  Province.     No. 
vember  loth,  1724." 
I 


114  Cadwallader  C olden 

Montreal,  separated  from  the  English  settlements  by  leagues 
of  wilderness,  peopled  by  French  Indians  who  could  be  trusted 
to  prevent  an  English  invasion.  Therefore,  what  would  be  a 
merely  passing  hindrance  to  the  French,  who  would  soon  find 
substitutes  for  English  specialities,  would  prove  a  permanent 
loss  to  England.  To  these  claims  the  council  report,  the  work 
of  Golden  and  Alexander,  presented  a  detailed  denial.  It  offered 
proofs  that  the  policy  had  already  passed  its  experimental  stage ; 
it  told  of  the  promise  of  its  future ;  but  it  frankly  admitted  that 
it  was  to  the  future  it  looked  for  its  warrant  and  that  there  would 
probably  be  such  temporary  loss  as  is  often  the  consequence 
of  readjustment. 

Had  the  report  stopped  there  it  would  have  been  a  model  con- 
troversial document,  and  the  situation  would  at  least  have  been 
made  no  worse.  But  instead,  it  added  the  gratuitous  informa- 
tion that  the  New  York  merchants  engaged  in  the  Canada  trade 
were  responsible  for  the  statement  of  their  English  colleagues, 
who  had  been  made  to  believe  them  true.  Unfortunately,  the 
personal  allusion  is  too  characteristic  of  Colden's  state  papers 
to  leave  one  in  doubt  as  to  its  authorship.  He  could  for  a  time 
discuss  a  measure  or  a  policy  to  which  he  was  opposed  with 
dignity  and  restraint.  But  if  he  had  a  personal  grievance  against 
the  champion  of  such  measure  or  policy,  and  he  almost  always 
had,  sooner  or  later  his  feelings  swept  away  his  common  sense 
and  he  damaged  his  position  by  personal  attack.  In  this  case, 
it  is  true,  no  names  were  given,  but  they  were  easily  sup- 
plied, and  the  resultant  bad  feeling  was  undiminished  by  the 
omission. 

The  merchants  found  it  necessary,  however,  to  change  their 
reasoning.  The  Board  of  Trade,  though  they  made  a  great  fuss 
about  the  unauthorized  use  of  their  minutes,  were  visibly  im- 
pressed both  by  the  reports  and  the  pamphlet,  and  they  de- 
manded an  explanation.    Their  petitioners  confessed  that  they 


A  Colonial  Politician  115 

had  described  incorrectly  the  location  of  the  Five  Nations,  but 
with  easy  effrontery  they  substituted  another  argument.  The 
old  order,  they  declared,  had  not  been  proved  bad  nor  the  new 
one  better.  No  bushlooper,  no  Albany  Dutchman,  could  deal 
with  the  Indians  like  the  skilful  coureur  du  hois,  or,  rather,  they 
could  not  deal  with  them  at  all.  So  the  bulk  of  the  Indian  trade 
of  the  last  months  had  consisted  of  secret  exchanges  with  these 
French  trappers,  and  there  had  even  been  open  dealings  where 
men  had  thought  it  to  their  advantage  to  pay  the  penalty.  But 
could  these  burdensome  restrictions  be  removed,  Albany  would 
become  the  principal,  if  not  the  only,  market  for  Indian  goods, 
owing  to  the  unpopularity  of  the  Canada  company,  who  held  a 
monopoly  of  the  Canadian  fur  trade,  with  headquarters  at  Mon- 
treal. As  it  was,  the  English  were  throwing  prosperity  into 
their  hands. ^  Proofs  and  affidavits  were  offered,  and  again  the 
board  deliberated. 

The  result  was  the  approval  of  the  new  measures.  Milder 
methods  of  execution  were  requested,  however,  but  the  governor 
and  his  advisers  felt  that  the  acts,  as  they  stood,  must  be  executed 
strictly  or  not  at  all.  Even  as  it  was,  the  people  shielded  one 
another  and  smuggling  was  continuous.  Therefore,  instead  of 
reducing  the  penalties,  the  prohibition  was  removed  and  a  duty 
was  levied  on  all  goods  for  the  Indian  trade,  the  rate  being 
doubled  when  such  goods  were  sold  to  the  French.  Under  the 
circumstances  it  was  believed  that  this  would  prove  an  even 
more  effectual  prohibition  of  the  trade  with  Canada  than  had 
been  the  case  with  the  earlier  legislation.  But  the  French 
had  no  intention  of  standing  still,  and  about  this  time  they 
erected  below  the  falls  of  Niagara,  on  land  for  which  Burnet  had 
obtained  a  deed  of  trust  from  the  Five  Nations,  a  bastioned 
fort,  under  their  usual  pretence  of  fortifying  a  trading  post. 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Trade  on  the  Indian  Trade  Acts,  May  5, 
1725.     New  York  Colonial  Documents,  V.     See  also  Smith,  I,  213-230. 


ii6  Cadwallader  C olden 

Though  they  claimed  the  permission  of  the  Iroquois,  their  right 
to  build  was  warmly  protested  by  New  York,  and  Burnet  begged 
that  its  demolition  be  demanded.  But  both  crowns  wanted 
peace,  and  the  Court  of  St.  James  contented  itself  with  oflFering 
a  formal  protest  to  the  Court  of  Versailles,  which  considerate 
inaction  the  Court  of  Versailles  reciprocated  when,  a  year  later, 
the  first  English  fort  on  the  Great  Lakes  was  put  up  at  Oswego 
and  garrisoned  with  twenty  men  and  a  sergeant. 

This,  the  great  achievement  of  Burnet's  administration,  and 
accomplished  partly  by  advances  from  his  own  purse,  was  also 
the  last.  With  what  seems  amazing  perversity,  the  governor 
and  his  chief  adviser  had  reached  a  depth  of  unpopularity  from 
which  ascent  was  impossible,  and  their  brilliant  and  single- 
minded  partnership  was  about  to  be  dissolved  amidst  popular 
disapproval.  To  see  two  officials  of  statesmanlike  qualities 
working  together  for  the  general  good,  as  Burnet  and  Colden 
had  worked,  was  well-nigh  unprecedented  in  that  place  and 
time,  and  if  they  accomplished  much,  they  should  have  accom- 
plished far  more.  But  a  series  of  mutual  and  individual 
blunders  had  created  hostilities  that  at  length  would  have  killed 
any  measure  they  might  have  proposed.  Colden's  first  reports 
as  surveyor  general,  charging,  as  has  been  said,  the  great  land- 
owners with  fraud  and  the  people  with  disaffection,  if  not  dis- 
loyalty ;  the  famous  council  report  in  which  he  slurred  the  mer- 
chants ;  his  share  in  effecting  the  retirement  from  the  council  of 
two  prominent  Dutchmen,  Phihp  Schuyler  and  Adolph  PhiHpse, 
on  charges  connected  with  their  adrninistration  of  the  land  office ; 
and  his  attack  on  George  Clarke,  one  of  the  largest  landowners 
and  the  shrewdest  politician  in  the  province,  had  gained  him 
enemies  in  abundance.  On  the  other  hand,  in  a  church  quarrel 
brought  before  Burnet  as  chancellor,  he  had  decided  against 
the  more  influential  division  of  the  congregation,  Colden  hap- 
pening to  be  the  master  in  chancery  who  issued  the  decree ;  while 


A  Colonial  Politician  117 

on  another  occasion,  he  had  been  unwise  enough  to  refuse  to 
quahfy  Stephen  Delancey  as  a  member  of  assembly  on  the 
ground  that  his  citizenship  seemed  doubtful.  Now  Delancey 
had  been  a  member  of  the  assembly  before,  and  had  taken  out 
his  papers  as  had  many  other  good  citizens  of  New  York  in  the  year 
1725.  He  was  besides  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  the 
community  and  perhaps  the  most  popular.  A  landed  proprietor, 
a  merchant  who  had  made  his  fortune  in  the  Canada  trade;  a 
Huguenot  emigrant  who  had  been  a  founder  and  supporter 
of  the  Uttle  French  church,  but  who  never  entered  its  door  after 
the  chancery  decision;  common  prudence  should  have  warned 
the  governor  to  let  the  evidence  of  his  former  membership  suffice. 
But  he  persisted  in  his  refusal,  until  he  should  consult  legal 
authority,  and  Delancey  left  the  house  unqualified.  Colden, 
who  had  been  away  for  some  time,  happened  to  arrive  in  town 
that  very  night,  and  early  the  next  morning  the  news  was  brought 
to  him.  The  assembly  was  at  white  heat.  Its  own  peculiar 
privilege,  the  right  to  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  its  members, 
had  been  impeached.  There  was  general  alarm  also.  The 
rights  and  property  of  all  foreigners  seemed  in  danger.  Colden 
flew  to  Burnet,  pointed  out  the  absurdity  of  making  an  issue  of 
a  point  where  he  was  really  in  the  wrong,  and  stood  over  him 
until  he  had  composed  a  letter  to  the  speaker  sufficiently  con- 
ciliatory to  satisfy  himself.  But,  though  the  governor  apolo- 
gized for  his  refusal  and  said  it  had  been  due  simply  to  a  desire 
to  be  exact,  neither  Delancey  nor  his  family  ever  forgot. 

The  usual  clash  between  official  opinion  and  popular  opinion 
on  the  jurisdiction  of  the  chancery  court  and  the  control  of  the 
colony  income  added  still  more  to  the  interest  of  the  situation. 
Indeed,  it  had  become  so  lively  that  Burnet  took  pains  to  drop 
a  hint  in  one  of  his  letters  home  that  any  little  unpleasantness 
that  might  have  been  observed  between  himself  and  his  legis- 
lature could  be  set  down  to  his  efforts  to  get  the  back  pay  due 


ii8  Cadwallader  C olden 

the  auditor  general  Horace  Walpole.  This  he  had  done  on  order 
and  with  almost  complete  success.  Mr.  Walpole's  deputy, 
he  added,  would  confirm  this  statement.^  But  Mr.  Walpole's 
deputy  was  George  Clarke,  and  George  Clarke  owed  little  either 
to  Burnet  or  Colden.  Accordingly,  he  took  pains  on  his  part  to 
tell  Mr.  Walpole  that  the  opposition  to  his  pay  had  all  come 
from  the  government  side,  that  the  governor  was  losing  ground 
because  of  personal  difficulties  with  new  members,  and  that  he 
was  losing  his  own  friends  by  the  system  of  threats  and  cajolery 
with  which  he  was  trying  to  force  their  compHance  with  his 
schemes.^  Fortunately,  perhaps,  for  all  concerned,  at  this  point 
George  I  died,  and  the  administrative  reorganization  usual  at 
such  a  time  took  place.  Every  one  was  changing  places  with 
some  one  else.  And  when  Burnet  was  transferred  to  Boston 
without  formal  criticism  of  his  policy,  it  was  impossible  to  say 
that  his  removal  had  any  significance  which  was  unfavourable  to 
himself.  Indeed,  his  friends  always  maintained  that  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  equally  important  post  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  just 
when  his  position  at  New  York  was  becoming  unendurable, 
was  merely  a  coincidence. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  change,  Colden  decided  on  a  tem- 
porary withdrawal  from  politics,  and  when,  in  the  spring  of  1728, 
Burnet  left  for  Boston,  Colden 's  house  in  town  was  for  rent,  and 
he  had  been  settled  for  some  months  in  his  new  manor-house  in 
Ulster  County.  His  family  in  Scotland  were  delighted  at  this 
renunciation  of  "court  amusements"  for  the  simple  pleasures 
of  the  country,  and  congratulated  him  on  his  new  distaste  for 
pubHc  affairs.  And  a  love  of  life  in  the  open  and  a  desire  to 
bring  his  children  up  away  from  the  distractions  of  that  city 
of  eight  thousand  inhabitants  were  partly  responsible  for  the 
move.     But  it  must  be  confessed  that  with  Burnet  away  and  the 

>  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V,  768.  »  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V,  764. 


A  Colonial  Politician  119 

opposition  triumphant,  his  share  in  court  amusements  and  public 
affairs  would  have  been  inconsiderable.  It  was  possible,  of 
course,  that  John  Montgomerie,  the  new  governor,  might  change 
matters.  So  Colden  went  to  town  to  see  him  take  the  oaths  of 
office  and  observe  the  situation.  But  as  the  council  were  march- 
ing with  their  future  chief  from  the  City  Hall  in  Wall  Street  to 
the  Fort  below  Whitehall,  Colden  heard  that  simple-minded  gen- 
tleman ingenuously  say  to  George  Clarke  that  he  would  follow 
his  advice  in  everything.  Naturally  enough,  Colden  returned 
to  his  farming.  But  he  never  for  a  moment  lost  his  interest  in 
the  drama  of  colonial  politics.  Occasional  visits  to  town  and 
his  correspondence  kept  him  in  close  touch  with  its  development. 
Lewis  Morris,  the  younger,  sent  him  amusing  but  prejudiced 
sketches  of  men  and  affairs ;  Archibald  Kennedy,  the  collector 
and  councillor,  struggled  through  more  honest  and  substantial 
accounts,  in  a  style  which  Colden  was  ungrateful  enough  to 
criticise  as  too  "laconic"  to  satisfy  one  of  his  capacity;  and  the 
faithful  Alexander  supplied  the  deficiencies  of  both.  Through 
him,  moreover,  Colden  was  enabled  to  retain  some  influence  on 
events. 

About  the  year  1729  WilHam  Bradford  began  to  add  to  the 
court  gossip  and  shipping  news,  which  composed  his  Gazette, 
certain  English  political  satires  which,  with  slight  changes  and 
omissions,  or  even  in  their  original  form,  were  so  applicable  to 
current  events  in  the  colony  that  they  proved  once  more  his- 
tory's habit  of  repetition.  Stupid  as  they  sometimes  were,  the 
idea  was  good,  and  Alexander,  with  Colden's  assistance,  began 
to  contribute  to  the  press  on  similar  lines  from  the  opposite 
political  standpoint.  At  the  same  time  Colden,  under  Alex- 
ander's management,  wrote  for  publication  a  series  of  letters 
addressed  to  Apse,  by  which  was  meant  Adolph  Philipse,  the 
suspended  councillor  and  the  leading  antagonist  of  the  chancery 
court.     Already,  in  the  summer  after  his  removal,  on  one  of  his 


I20  Cadwallader  Colden 

visits  to  town,  he  had  joined  with  other  councillors  in  an  attempt 
at  once  to  champion  that  court  and  vindicate  such  champion- 
ship, and  these  letters  were  intended  to  keep  the  issue  before 
the  colony.  Alexander  was  only  too  glad  of  this  chance  to  work 
with  his  friend  once  more.  Yet  he  was  a  discriminating  ad- 
mirer, and  when  Colden 's  intense  partisanship  seemed  excessive 
did  not  hesitate  to  urge  less  rhetoric  and  more  reserve.^ 

Meanwhile,  Montgomerie,  with  no  troublesome  plans  or 
theories  of  his  own,  and  only  anxious  to  get  the  largest  salary 
obtainable  with  as  Httle  friction  as  possible,  had  early  formed 
an  alliance  with  the  Delanceys.  These  were  then  in  control  of 
what,  for  want  of  a  name,  may  be  called  the  opposition.  Lo- 
cally known  at  various  times  as  the  popular  party  or  the  country 
party,  it  stood  for  no  fixed  principles  and  was  committed  to  no 
definite  line  of  conduct  until  later  it  developed  into  the  Whig 
party  of  pre-revolutionary  times.  Though  it  was  the  resort, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  of  men  "agin  the  government,"  who 
perhaps  once  had  been  in  the  ranks  of  the  courtiers,  or  might 
the  next  day  be  found  there,  it  was  usually  led  by  demagogues, 
bent  only  on  getting  all  the  power  they  could.  Now  and  then, 
however,  there  were  issues  which  brought  men  of  real  patriotism 
to  the  front,  men  who,  though  loyal  to  the  crown,  wished  to  curb 
its  representatives.  These  found  themselves  leaders  of  the 
opposition,  and  long  after  the  crisis  was  over  and  they  had 
dropped  out  of  politics,  their  name  and  cause  would  lend  pres- 
tige to  their  quondam  associates.  The  real  leaders  of  the  oppo- 
sition, in  distinction  to  these  occasional  pilots,  had  long  been 
pitted  against  the  administration  in  the  struggle  for  the  control 
of  the  colonial  purse.  In  this  policy  they  had  already  succeeded 
in  part;  that  is,  they  could  hold  the  revenue  and  keep  it  from 
others,  but  the  money  itself  could  not  be  spent  save  by  warrant 
of  the  governor  and  council.    And  up  to  this  time  these  officials 

'  Colden  Correspondence,  1711-1737. 


A  Colonial  Politician  121 

had  resisted  all  attempts  to  ignore  them  in  regulating  expen- 
diture. Now,  however,  the  assembly,  having  cut  the  salary  of 
the  chief  justice,  Lewis  Morris,  saw  an  opportunity  of  forcing 
the  council  tacitly  to  acknowledge  that  their  will  was  law,  what- 
ever the  royal  instructions  might  say.  The  governor  was  hand 
in  glove  with  their  leader ;  George  Clarke  and  Francis  Harison 
might  be  depended  on  to  oppose  any  one  who  had  been  a  friend 
to  Burnet ;  and  three  or  four  other  councillors  were  too  stupid 
to  care  which  way  they  voted.  Moreover,  old  Delancey's  oldest 
son,  a  Cambridge  graduate,  had  just  been  made  a  member  of 
the  board  on  his  return  from  the  university ;  Colden  was  seldom 
in  town ;  Kennedy  was  pliable ;  and  Alexander  and  young  Mor- 
ris could  do  Httle  by  themselves.  The  assembly  were  right. 
Montgomerie  long  shirked  the  issue  and  sought  advice  from 
Alexander  and  even  Colden ;  Alexander  maintained  a  dignified 
opposition,  and  young  Morris  stormed  and  harangued,  injuring 
his  father's  cause  more  than  he  furthered  it.  But,  finally,  war- 
rants were  signed  by  the  governor  and  council  to  which  their 
consent  had  not  been  asked.  The  opposition  could  felicitate 
themselves.  Another  governor  might  indeed  demand  the  an- 
cient privilege,  but  a  precedent  had  been  established  sure  to 
make  his  claim  less  certain  of  satisfaction.  Colden  could  only 
look  grimly  on  and  wonder  why  it  was  no  one's  business  to  put 
a  stop  to  such  innovations  before  it  was  too  late.* 

About  this  time,  however,  he  was  brought  into  closer  con- 
nection with  provincial  life  through  his  relations  with  the 
patentees  of  that  famous  strip  of  land  knovni  as  "the  oblong." 
Of  this  he  was  part  owner  and  surveyor,  acting  besides  as 
general  adviser  to  the  patentees  in  their  long  Htigation  with 
rivals  in  England.  Indeed,  his  advice  was  felt  to  be  so  indis- 
pensable that  even  George  Clarke  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  he 

'  Colden  Correspondence ;  Governor  Montgomerie  to  the  Lords  of  Trade, 
June  30,  1729.     N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V,  877. 


122  Cadwallader  Colden 

would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  scheme  unless  Colden  was 
equally  concerned.  When,  moreover,  three  years  after  his 
arrival,  Montgomerie  died  and  was  succeeded  by  Colonel  Will- 
iam Cosby,  Colden's  office  enjoyed  a  distinct  increase  in  im- 
portance. Vain  and  ignorant,  a  bully  and  a  snob,  yet  good- 
natured  enough  when  he  had  his  own  way,  Governor  Cosby, 
as  well  as  my  lady,  his  wife,  was  determined  to  make  their  Ameri- 
can sojourn  pay  well,  and  to  put  forth  as  little  effort  as  possible 
in  attaining  this  object.  The  crown  lands  of  the  province  were 
the  means  by  which  the  happy  result  was  to  be  achieved,  and  a 
knowing  friend  at  home  had  advised  the  governor  to  make 
Colden's  friendship  his  first  object,  for  Colden  could  guide  his 
general  pohcy  as  well  as  further  his  personal  ambition.^  But 
Clarke,  plausible  and  insinuating,  was  on  hand  to  welcome  the 
unsuspecting  adventurer,  and  Colden  was  sixty  miles  away. 
Naturally  enough,  Clarke  once  more  became  confidential  ad- 
viser to  the  governor,  and  soon  had  him  almost  as  completely 
in  his  power  as  Montgomerie  had  been.  Not  quite,  however. 
Colden  knew  more  about  the  vacant  lands  than  Clarke  or  any 
one  else.  So  Mrs.  Colden  and  her  pretty  young  daughter 
Betty  were  made  much  of  at  the  Fort,  when  they  came  down  on 
a  visit,  and  Colden  was  begged  to  come  down  himself.  This 
he  had  little  desire  to  do.  He  did  not  trust  the  governor ;  he 
felt  uncertain  about  his  position ;  and  he  wanted  to  feel,  if  the 
worst  happened,  that  he  had  at  least  been  independent.  Hence, 
while  party  feeling  was  higher  than  it  had  been  for  years ;  while 
Bradford's  rival,  Zenger,  lashed  the  administration  with  wit  and 
satire  until  the  Gazette  itself  was  also  forced  to  become  inter- 
esting; while  the  imprisonment  of  the  intrepid  journalist  gave 
rise  to  a  fierce  debate  on  the  right  to  criticise  one's  betters; 
while  the  press  was  confirmed  in  this  right ;  while  the  court 
party  and  the  country  party  took  to  themselves  taverns  and 

*  Alured  Popple  to  Colden,  November  i,  1734. 


A  Colonial  Politician  123 

formed  clubs ;  while  some  of  the  plain  people  were  beguiled  by 
invitations  to  Fort  gayeties  and  others  looked  on  with  Homeric 
laughter ;  while  the  chief  justice  fell  and  American  affairs  actu- 
ally became  an  object  of  interest  in  London,  where  Cosby's 
misdeeds  were  talked  of  in  the  coffee  houses,  Golden  mastered 
his  few  law  books,  looked  after  his  improvements,  dreamed  over 
his  theories,  and  with  quadrant  and  compass  opened  up  new 
regions  and  put  in  order  old  ones/ 

He  was,  to  be  sure,  a  councillor  still,  and  there  was  consider- 
able criticism  of  absentee  officials,  aimed  at  no  one  else  but 
himself.  His  friends,  also,  seemed  to  think  that  if  he  would  only 
come  down,  he  could  do  something.  Just  what,  it  is  difficult  to 
say.  The  minority's  force  had  been  diminished  by  the  con- 
firmed suspension  of  Lewis  Morris,  and  when  Golden  did 
come  down,  he  could  do  little  more  than  speak  his  mind.  This 
he  never  hesitated  to  do.  For  instance,  when  Gosby  one  day 
in  council  presented  Delancey  with  a  commission  as  chief  jus- 
tice, vice  Lewis  Morris,  suspended,  and  Delancey  according  to 
custom  left  the  room.  Golden  asked  whether  he  was  to  under- 
stand that  the  advice  of  the  council  was  being  asked,  as  usual 
in  such  cases.  If  it  was,  he  said,  he  wished  to  be  put  on  record 
as  opposed  to  the  commission,  as  he  did  not  think  it  for  the  good 
of  his  Majesty's  service.  Gosby  repHed  that  he  had  not  the 
slightest  intention  of  consulting  the  council  on  the  subject,  and 
the  matter  dropped.  Moreover,  Golden 's  friends  had  ex- 
changed principles  with  the  majority.  Gosby  had  succeeded 
to  Montgomerie's  cabinet,  but  those  advocates  of  popular  rights 
soon  found  that  they  had  a  different  man  from  Montgomerie 
with  whom  to  deal.  Easily  influenced  where  abstract  princi- 
ples were  in  question,  he  was  adamant  where  his  own  personal 

*  Authorities  for  Cosby's  Administration :  Colden  Correspondence,  Bradford's 
Gazette,  Zenger's  Journal,  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V  and  VI ;  Council  and  Assembly 
records. 


124  Cadwallader  C olden 

desires  were  involved.  And  as  it  happened  that  his  personal 
desires  of  the  moment  required  the  machinery  of  prerogative 
for  their  reahzation,  his  advisers  not  too  unwilUngly  became  the 
supporters  of  much  they  had  lately  opposed.  On  the  other 
hand,  such  obedient  and  conservative  defenders  of  constitu- 
tional kingship  as  James  Alexander  and  William  Smith  were 
forced  into  an  attempt  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  petty 
despotism.  The  attempt  was  in  some  respects  successful,  and 
meanwhile  Smith  and  Alexander,  no  less  than  the  Morrises, 
whose  motives  were  perhaps  more  mixed,  taxed  Cosby's  vo- 
cabulary to  the  utmost.  In  his  tempestuous  letters  home  they 
figured  as  liars,  incendiaries,  levellers,  demagogues  of  the  vilest 
description,  and,  indeed,  delicacy  at  times  forbade  their  adequate 
description. 

But,  however  little  Golden  might  love  Cosby  and  his  ways,  his 
instincts  and  training  forbade  his  appearance  as  a  popular 
champion.  At  the  same  time,  his  friends  were  so  deeply  con- 
cerned that,  had  he  been  staying  in  town,  he  could  scarcely  have 
avoided  taking  a  hand  in  the  game.  As  it  was,  he  kept  friends 
on  both  sides.  Indeed,  even  in  the  last  administration,  when 
Alexander  had  been  at  Kingston,  but  a  few  miles  from  Coldeng- 
ham,  Colden's  manor,  he  was  unable  to  stop  there,  because 
Montgomerie  would  have  known  that  he  had  gone  in  the  inter- 
est of  Lewis  Morris,  and  Morris  would  have  been  certain  he  had 
acted  as  the  governor's  decoy.  And  at  this  time  one  of  his 
most  assiduous  correspondents  was  one  of  Cosby's  most  steady 
favourites. 

This  was  Daniel  Horsmanden,  a  young  barrister  of  the  Inner 
Temple.  He  had  come  over  with  letters  of  introduction  to 
Cosby  and  Colden,  loaded  with  debts,  but  hoping  to  make  his 
fortune  in  land.  For  the  legitimate  use  of  legal  talents  did  not 
bring  riches  in  1732,  though  the  prospect  of  seeing  the  young 
barrister's  gown  filled  the  court  room  on  the  day  of  his  first  ap- 


A  Colonial  Politician  125 

pearance,  and  was  town  talk  for  days  after.  Frankly  professing 
self-interest  as  the  leading  motive  for  his  friendship,  and  sprin- 
kling his  letters  with  impertinent  allusions  to  Golden 's  good 
friends,  "Old  Morris"  and  all  his  family,  his  wit  and  good 
fellowship  nevertheless  charmed  the  surveyor  general  into  many 
a  good  turn.  But,  however  much  it  might  have  been  to  Golden 's 
interest,  he  was  not  equally  helpful  to  Horsmanden's  chief 
patron.  Realize  his  danger  though  he  did,  Gosby's  demand  of 
one-third  of  every  grant  surveyed,  his  greedy  eagerness  for  tips 
on  the  most  desirable  investments,  his  evident  expectation  of  an 
alliance  between  land  office  and  executive,  at  times  irritated 
Golden  almost  into  incivihty.  Therefore  he  was  scarcely  sur- 
prised when  he  heard  from  Horsmanden  one  day  that  he  had 
been  suspended  from  office,  and  though  in  this  case  intention 
had  been  mistaken  for  fact,  it  was  so  evident  that  Gosby  meant 
to  suspend  him  sometime,  that  he  promptly  took  measures  for 
entering  his  defence  in  advance. 

He  was  enabled  to  do  this  through  Lewis  Morris,  who,  in 
England  for  the  purpose  of  reversing  his  own  suspension  as 
chief  justice,  found  time  and  opportunity  in  his  good-hearted 
way  to  work  for  Golden.  Gosby,  it  seemed,  proposed  to  indict 
his  surveyor  general  on  three  grounds,  and  these  Morris  set  him- 
self to  refute.  First,  Golden,  Gosby  claimed,  had  reported  that 
the  governor  was  poor  pay,  and  that  his  bills  had  been  protested. 
This,  Morris  said,  had  not  been  proved  true,  but  even  if  it  had, 
he  could  see  no  crime  in  stating  what  every  one  knew  already. 
Secondly,  it  was  claimed  that  Golden  had  shown  the  council's 
letter  to  Newcastle  concerning  the  late  chief  justice  to  Morris 
himself.  This  Morris  flatly  denied.  Another  man,  a  merchant 
and  not  a  councillor,  had  shown  it  to  him,  and  Golden  was  miles 
away  at  the  time.  This  may  have  been  true,  but  there  is  reason 
to  think  that  the  charge  was  timely  in  spirit,  at  least,  for,  by  his 
own  confession,  Morris  was  shown  the  council  minute  regard- 


126  Cadwallader  C olden 

ing  his  suspension  some  days  before  the  suspension  itself  reached 
him,  and  as  Golden  was  the  only  councillor  present  who  was 
friendly  to  Morris,  it  is  possible  to  infer  a  fact  closely  resembhng 
Cosby's  indictment/  Finally,  it  was  stated  that  Golden  had 
served  the  prince  in  1 7 1 5 ,  Fortunately,  the  Marquis  of  Lothian, 
the  intimate  friend  of  the  powerful  Duke  of  Argyle,  and  a  chum 
of  Colden's  boyhood,  had,  as  Lord  Jedburgh,  been  the  means 
of  his  raising  a  small  company  to  meet  the  Highlanders  who  had 
come  south  to  support  that  same  princeling,  and  to  him  Morris 
appealed.  The  real  reason  for  Gosby's  enmity,  he  said,  was 
that  Golden  had  made  an  honest  surveyor  general.  What  if 
he  did  take  shares  in  the  grants,  Morris  demanded ;  he  had  no 
other  salary,  and  it  was  expected  that  he  would.  However, 
though  Lothian  said  a  number  of  kind  things  about  Golden 's 
father,  and  promised  to  do  all  that  he  could,  and  Morris  felt 
confident  of  success,  it  was  perhaps  as  well  that  Gosby's  death 
removed  the  necessity  for  further  effort. 

The  governor's  last  illness  was  a  fever,  and  during  its  tedious 
course  the  province  had  almost  gone  mad  over  the  question  of 
his  successor.  Naturally,  Rip  Van  Dam,  the  senior  councillor, 
would  have  become  acting  governor  on  Gosby's  death.  But 
Van  Dam  had  been  the  wilhng,  though  somewhat  guileless, 
centre  of  many  of  the  storms  of  that  administration,  and  Gosby 
had  not  been  ill  many  hours  before  Van  Dam  was  summoned 
to  his  bedside,  with  the  rest  of  the  council,  and  suspended. 
This  left  George  Glarke  at  the  head  of  the  board.  Yet  the  legal 
duration  of  the  suspension  and  Glarke's  consequent  right  to  the 
government  were  so  disputed,  that  it  was  not  until  more  than 
eight  months  after  Gosby's  death,  in  February,  1736,  when 
official  papers  arrived  from  England  addressed  to  Glarke  as 
commander-in-chief,  that  the  normal  functions  of  adminis- 
tration were  resumed. 

»  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  V,  951. 


A  Colonial  Politician  127 

Clarke's  triumph  was  already  complete,  but  its  completeness 
was  emphasized  and  the  prestige  and  security  of  his  position 
increased  when  his  commission  as  lieutenant-governor  followed 
close  on  the  heels  of  his  confirmation  as  senior  councillor.  For 
the  time  at  least  Van  Dam  and  Alexander,  Morris  and  Smith, 
had  little  to  hope  for.  Golden,  on  the  contrary,  though  he  and 
Alexander  were  still  the  best  of  friends,  sent  congratulations  to 
Clarke  all  the  way  from  the  wilderness  of  western  New  York, 
where  he  was  surveying.  Harmony  between  surveyor  general 
and  governor  was  desirable  from  both  points  of  view,  and  Col- 
den  never  denied  that  he  wanted  to  make  all  the  money  he  hon- 
estly could  from  his  office.  Moreover,  he  had  learned  how  un- 
pleasant an  unfriendly  governor  could  be.  But  though  there  is 
no  evidence  that  he  and  his  former  antagonist  neglected  their 
opportunities,  their  administration  of  the  land  office  was  suf- 
ficiently just  to  have  caused  little  comment  had  it  not  been  for 
one  instance.  It  seems  that  a  certain  lord  of  the  isles,  one 
Laughlin  Campbell,  had  formed  a  scheme  for  a  great  feudal 
estate  somewhere  in  the  British  colonies,  with  himself  as  over- 
lord, and  in  the  year  1737  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  merely  to  decide 
on  its  location.  He  found  that  on  the  whole  the  province  of 
New  York  offered  the  greatest  advantages.  The  hundred  thou- 
sand acres  which  three  years  before  Cosby,  at  Colden's  instiga- 
tion, had  thrown  open  to  Protestant  families  from  any  country 
in  Europe,  were  gone,  but  he  easily  secured  a  promise  of  thirty 
thousand  more,  free  of  all  charges  save  the  expense  of  the  sur- 
vey and  the  usual  quit-rent.  Indeed,  both  Clarke  and  Colden 
believed  that  a  line  of  frontier  farms  and  estates  would  afford 
the  best  possible  check  to  French  encroachments,  and  were 
more  than  willing  to  encourage  desirable  grantees.  When, 
however,  Campbell  returned  to  America  with  about  eighty- 
three  families,  it  was  evident  that  he  did  not  belong  in  this  cate- 
gory.    Neither  he  nor  his  people  had  any  financial  resources; 


128  Cadwallader  C olden 

the  assembly  refused  to  supply  the  amount  necessary  to  tide 
the  enterprise  over  until  crops  could  be  gathered ;  and  the  pro- 
spective vassals  had  either  decided  on  the  way  over  that  they 
would  do  anything  rather  than  serve  Campbell,  or  had  always  in- 
tended to  strike  out  for  themselves  when  they  reached  America. 
At  any  rate,  some  began  to  apply  for  separate  holdings,  and  when 
the  governor  had  them  called  together  in  order  to  find  out  their 
intentions,  they  one  and  all  declared  that  they  would  not  be 
Campbell's  tenants.  Then,  it  being  evident  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  Campbell,  even  with  their  assistance,  to  cultivate 
the  proportion  of  his  grant  required  by  the  instructions,  the 
patent  was  withheld. 

Such  a  refusal  was  justifiable,  but  it  long  affected  Colden's 
reputation,  and  indeed  never  ceased  to  have  an  influence  on  his 
career.  When  William  Smith,  for  instance,  pubHshed  his 
famous  history  twenty  years  later,  he  brought  his  narrative  to 
a  close  with  the  year  1732,  because  he  feared  to  stir  the  still- 
living  embers  of  a  bitter  conflict ;  yet  he  took  pains  to  tell  Camp- 
bell's story  in  the  appendix,  where  he  said  that  his  scheme  had 
failed  "through  the  sordid  views  of  some  persons  in  power,  who 
aimed  at  a  share  in  the  intended  grant,  to  which  Campbell,  who 
was  a  man  of  spirit,  would  not  consent."  This  sent  Colden  to 
his  pen,  denying  the  ill-concealed  impeachment  and  challenging 
Smith's  authority,  but  courteously  absolving  him  from  inten- 
tional slander  and  informing  him  where  truth  could  be  found. 
In  a  later  letter  he  begged  him  even  more  earnestly  to  consult 
the  council  records,  to  question  surviving  members  of  Camp- 
bell's company.  But  Smith  considered  his  own  authorities  — 
a  boyish  impression,  contemporary  gossip,  the  complaints  of 
Campbell's  widow,  a  remembered  comment  of  James  Alex- 
ander's —  sufficient,  and  refused  to  extend  the  sources  of  his 
information.  He  who  ran  might  read  that  in  1741  a  committee 
of  council,  with  Daniel  Horsmanden,  then  Colden's  friend  no 


A  Colonial  Politician  129 

longer,  in  the  chair,  had  rejected  a  petition  of  Campbell's,  beg- 
ging that  the  refusal  of  his  patent  be  reversed,  and  had  stated 
that  he  could  not  rightfully  consider  himself  disappointed. 
Smith  not  only  ignored  this  important  evidence,  but  in  the  con- 
tinuation of  his  history  repeated  his  former  statement,  this  time 
with  names,  and  added:  "Mr.  Golden,  to  vindicate  Mr.  Clarke, 
and  to  exculpate  himself,  though  not  named  in  the  former 
representation  of  Campbell's  disappointment,  gave  himself  the 
trouble  of  two  letters  to  the  author.  .  .  .  The  author's  object 
being  general,  he  declined  entering  into  any  partial  controversy 
respecting  the  criminality  of  individuals.  Let  it  suffice,  that 
the  account  given  was  consistent  with  information  procured 
from  Mr.  Alexander,  whose  intimacy  with  Mr.  Colden  gives  it 
force."  From  such  an  opponent  Colden  was  to  receive  small 
mercy  when  his  opportunity  came.* 

Despite  many  difficulties  Clarke's  administration  progressed 
at  first  with  much  satisfaction  to  himself.  His  object  was  to 
get  the  assembly  well  enough  in  hand  to  prevent  charges  of  mis- 
management and  incompetency,  but  at  the  same  time  to  impress 
observers  at  a  distance  with  the  great  difficulty  of  keeping  a  hold 
on  the  reins.  In  this  way  he  trusted  prospective  governors 
would  be  frightened  away,  and  he  himself  left  in  undisturbed 
possession.  For  several  years  his  method  worked  to  a  charm. 
Lord  Delaware,  indeed,  was  appointed  governor  of  New  York, 
and  his  commission  and  instructions  were  prepared,  but  his 
resignation  soon  followed,  and  then  for  a  long  time  Clarke  was 
not  even  annoyed  by  rumours  of  a  successor.  Meanwhile,  the 
assembly  steadily  advanced  their  claims,  Clarke  humouring  them 
as  much  as  he  dared.  He  knew  the  leaders,  and  he  knew  that 
the  rough  independence  of  their  pubUc  addresses  to  himself  was 
to  suit  the  taste  of  their  followers.  But  he  was  assured  that 
he  would  not  be  permitted  to  suffer.     So  he  pleased  them  by 

•  Collections  of  the  N.  Y.  His.  Soc,  Second  Series,  II,  193-214. 

K 


130  Cadwallader  C olden 

promising  to  serve  as  their  agent  in  urging  the  royal  approval  of 
an  act  for  triennial  assemblies,  and,  at  first,  accepted  an  annual 
and  appropriated  revenue  with  a  good  grace.  As  time  went  on, 
however,  his  affairs  wore  a  less  happy  aspect.  He  had  not 
always  drawn  a  pleasant  picture  of  his  people  in  his  letters, 
and  his  people  commenced  to  find  out  that  he  and  their  leaders 
had  sometimes  played  them  false.  Moreover,  it  was  a  matter 
of  general  beUef  that  only  Cosby 's  untimely  death  had  prevented 
the  suspension  of  Clarke  from  following  that  of  Van  Dam,  in 
order  to  pave  the  way  for  James  Delancey's  advancement.  If 
this  were  true,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Delancey 
contingent  had  supported  the  administration  but  feebly.  Still, 
though  Clarke  began  to  demand  an  unappropriated  revenue 
for  a  term  of  years,  and  when  it  was  refused,  darkly  to  hint 
at  the  use  of  force,  his  own  perfect  self-command  and  personal 
dignity  prevented  the  repetition  of  earlier  squabbling  between 
governor  and  legislature.  And  at  length,  some  five  years  after 
Cosby 's  death,  the  comparative  calm  of  the  province  and  his 
own  financial  condition  induced  a  naval  officer  of  the  family  of 
Clinton  to  consent  to  become  its  executive  head,  his  departure 
for  his  new  appointment,  however,  being  delayed  two  years  and 
more. 

The  Clarke  administration  had,  on  the  whole,  proved  agree- 
able to  Colden.  Much  occupied  with  boundary  disputes  and 
various  Uterary  and  scientific  schemes,  he  yet  was  more  in  town 
than  he  had  been  since  Burnet's  time.  Once  more  while  there 
he  was  a  man  of  importance,  whose  opinions  carried  weight. 
With  many  friends  among  the  disaffected,  he  did  all  he  could 
to  win  them  to  the  administration.  But  he  did  good  work 
among  others  who  had  not  been  his  friends,  and  Clarke  was 
apparently  grateful.  That  he  could  do  this  harder  work  was 
in  some  measure  due  to  his  family.  His  big  farm  up  the  colony 
required  the  presence  of  himself  or  his  wife,  but  two  attractive 


A  Colonial  Politician  131 

daughters  just  in  society  were  their  father's  willing  companions, 
and  their  easy  popularity,  which  lightly  rode  over  all  party  lines, 
was,  for  a  time  at  least,  reflected  on  Golden  himself.  He,  how- 
ever, pleased  though  he  was  at  his  renewed  prestige,  found  it  no 
compensation  for  the  loss  of  his  wife's  society  and  a  life  of  busy 
leisure.  There  was  something  strenuous  even  about  little  old 
New  York,  and  Golden 's  complaints  about  the  interruptions, 
without  which  it  seemed  impossible  to  write  a  single  letter,  sound 
strangely  famihar.  "Our  party  disputes  are  as  high  as  ever," 
he  wrote  Mrs.  Golden  late  in  1737,  "while  some  are  endeavour- 
ing to  widen  the  rent,  others  are  endeavouring  to  patch  it  up. 
What  will  be  the  result  it  is  difficult  to  tell.  .  .  .  You  may  be 
sure  we  will  stay  here  as  short  while  as  possible,  but  it  is  impos- 
sible for  me  to  tell  when  I  shall  leave  the  place  and  affairs  are 
in  such  a  state  that  I  cannot  at  this  time  propose  leaving  it  with- 
out disobUging  perhaps  all  my  friends.  .  .  ." 

In  fact,  for  all  his  activity,  Golden  considered  himself  still  out 
of  politics,  and  desired  to  remain  so.  Naturally,  he  had  an 
almost  passionate  ambition  to  deserve  well  of  his  country,  to 
render  her  conspicuous  service  of  some  sort.  But  he  had  become 
used  to  living  away  from  the  centre  of  things,  and  he  had  been 
given  to  understand  too  often  that  his  efforts  for  the  colony's 
advancement  were  undesired,  to  feel  any  satisfaction  or  confi- 
dence in  their  renewal.  Nor  was  he  inclined  to  change  his  mind 
when,  in  1738,  his  position  was  strengthened  by  the  marriage 
of  Betty  Golden  to  Peter  Delancey,  second  son  of  Stephen  and 
brother  of  James.  He  was,  indeed,  flattered  by  the  apparent 
pleasure  the  match  gave  the  Delancey  connection,  and  joyfully 
wrote  his  wife  that  the  youthful  chief  justice  treated  him  like  a 
dearly  beloved  father.  But  he  was  more  deeply  touched  by  the 
applause  with  which  his  scientific  achievements  were  being  re- 
ceived in  some  quarters,  and  looked  forward  to  spending  more 
and  more  time  in  study  and  experiment. 


132  Cadwallader  Colden 

II 

When  at  last,  in  the  autumn  of  1743,  Admiral  Clinton  ar- 
rived, it  seemed  probable  that  Colden 's  part  in  his  administra- 
tion would  be  very  small  indeed.  The  son  of  one  Earl  of  Lin- 
coln, the  brother  of  another,  and  the  uncle  of  a  third  and  fourth, 
the  new  governor  had  obtained  his  appointment  through  one 
of  these  nephews,  who  had  married  Miss  Pelham,  daughter  of 
the  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  In  truth,  this  connection  could 
alone  have  suggested  him  for  the  important  task  upon  which  he 
was  about  to  enter.  There  was  every  reason  to  suppose  that 
war  between  England  and  France  would  soon  be  declared. 
This  would  mean  intercolonial  war,  a  struggle  between  New 
France  and  New  England,  with  New  York  as  its  strategic  point ; 
and  that  would  mean  that  New  York's  Indians  must  be  well 
handled  and  that  New  York's  assembly  must  be  handled  even 
better.  Yet  to  do  this  England  had  sent  a  mere  naval  officer, 
good-natured  and  kind-hearted,  but  with  no  experience  in  civil 
administration,  no  natural  or  acquired  diplomacy,  no  habits  of 
self-control,  and  accustomed  to  the  downright  discipUne  of  his 
arm  of  the  service  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
had  not  even  been  coached,  as  had  some  of  his  predecessors, 
in  colonial  politics  and  the  ways  of  colonial  politicians.  He  had 
only  been  told  that  he  must  look  out  for  Clarke;  that  Clarke 
had  made  life  uncomfortable  for  Cosby,  and  would  doubtless  Uke 
to  make  it  uncomfortable  for  him,  so  that  he  himself  might  be 
chief  magistrate  once  more.  And  CHnton  was  so  pleased  by  this 
knowledge  and  by  the  way  in  which  he  displayed  it,  that,  when 
Clarke  refused  to  play  second  fiddle  and  resigned  from  the 
council,  he  thought  his  need  for  caution  at  an  end,  and  rushed 
on  his  fate  with  a  Ught  heart. 

James  Delancey  was  very  clearly  the  most  commanding 
figure  in  the  province.     He  was  a  prince  of  good  fellows,  and  he 


A  Colonial  Politician  133 

advocated  a  policy  of  concession  well-pleasing  to  easy-going 
Clinton.  Therefore,  never  thinking  that  Delancey  might  also 
have  schemes  not  altogether  to  his  advantage,  Chnton  did  as 
he  bade  him,  —  recommended  for  vacancies  in  the  council  the 
men  he  suggested,  was  agreeably  blind  to  the  encroachments  of 
the  legislature,  and  substituted  for  the  chief  justice's  old  com- 
mission, which,  as  usual,  ran  "during  pleasure,"  one  with  the 
tenure  of  "during  good  behaviour."  Nor  did  he  suspect  any- 
thing when,  after  war  with  France  had  become  a  fact,  even  De- 
lancey could  not  induce  the  assembly  so  much  as  to  consider 
the  administration's  plans  for  the  defence  of  the  colony;  when, 
even  with  such  backing,  it  was  common  talk  that  a  member  of 
the  assembly  had  told  a  member  of  the  council  that  the  assembly 
would  oppose  the  administration's  pet  scheme,  —  a  fort  at  the 
carry  between  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Champlain,  —  be  the  argu- 
ments for  it  never  so  good ;  when  before  the  governor  personally 
could  have  done  anything  to  anger  them,  the  assembly  had  left 
one  of  his  messages  unanswered  and  even  unnoticed. 

About  this  time  Golden,  who  had  left  town  ahnost  as  soon 
as  he  had  been  sworn  in  under  the  new  governor,  came  down 
to  attend  the  council,  of  which,  owing  to  Clarke's  departure 
for  England,  he  was  now  president.  As  senior  councillor 
he  was  also  next  to  Chnton  in  Hne  of  succession,  and  it  was 
soon  evident  that  many  remembered  this,  to  them,  depressing 
fact.  "Business  stands  still  in  such  a  state  that  I  know  it  to  be 
needless  to  ask  leave  to  be  with  you,"  he  wrote  his  wife  in  Sep- 
tember, 1744.  "All  I  can  say  is  that  I  shall  not  easily  be  pre- 
vailed on  to  put  myself  in  their  power  again.  But  the  present 
Circumstances  of  the  War  lays  me  under  a  necessity  of  staying 
unless  I  had  an  excuse  that  would  take  off  all  gainsaying."  Yet 
with  some  good  friends  about  him,  Colden  could  have  put  up 
with  much  had  he  felt  that  anything  was  being  accomplished. 
But  neither  the  frequent  reports  of  the  sinister  activity  of  the 


134  Cadwallader  C olden 

French  among  the  Indians,  nor  the  tidings  of  a  French  naval 
force  at  Cape  Breton,  nor  the  prospect  of  the  necessity  of  heavy- 
expenditure  of  men  and  money  stirred  the  New  York  law- 
makers with  the  spirit  of  practical  patriotism.  Consultation 
only  followed  debate  and  debate  consultation  until,  after  two 
months  of  tiresome  inaction,  Golden  once  more  fled  to  Coldeng- 
ham.  Here,  lost  in  a  new  set  of  experiments,  testing  the  heal- 
ing properties  of  pokeweed  and  tar-water,  he  heard  of  New 
England's  designs  on  Louisburg,  of  the  impossibility  of  rous- 
ing the  New  York  assembly  to  emulation,  and  of  its  angry  dis- 
solution by  Clinton  with  the  sanction  of  his  council. 

"The  Boston  expedition  against  Cape  Breton,"  wrote  James 
Alexander,  "Seems  a  Bad  undertaking.  I  heartyly  wish  it  may 
Succeed,  but  I  am  afraid  of  it,  for  the  want  of  Warriors  & 
Engineers  which  I  look  upon  to  be  as  much  an  art  as  any  manual 
Occupation.  Their  Generalissimo  I  hear  is  a  new  Hght  man 
that  never  Saw  a  Shot  fired  in  anger.  The  being  an  Enthusiast 
I  take  it  to  be  no  ill  property  in  a  warrior,  but  the  Defect  of  Ex- 
perience, I  Doubt  if  that  good  property  will  Supply.  Its  said 
they  had  three  good  Engineers  but  owned  not  one  of  them  was 
at  a  Siege.  I  Doubt  much  if  Theory  will  supply  that  Defect. 
The  number  of  men  proposed  for  the  Expedition  viz.  7  or  8000 
Seems  fully  sufficient  were  the  half  of  them  but  Veterans.  If 
it  Succeed  it  will  be  the  most  glorious  thing  that  has  been  done 
this  Warr  &  the  more  usefull  if  the  Conquest  can  be  kept  for  its 
the  only  place  of  Rendezvous  that  the  french  have  to  Annoy  the 
Northern  plantations  with  from  the  Sea." 

Yet,  pleased  as  he  might  be,  Clinton  could  win  no  assistance 
whatever  from  the  prosperous  burghers  of  his  province.  "I 
tired  not  a  Uttle  at  New  York,"  wrote  Clinton's  friend,  John 
Rutherford,^  member  of  council  and  captain  of  regulars  at 
Albany,  "being  all  ways  in  A  Hurry  yet  nothing  done  especially 

*  April  22,  1745. 


A  Colonial  Politician  135 

in  the  Assembly  where  they  had  a  great  deal  of  Bustle  yet  in  the 
end  seems  resolved  to  leave  all  affairs  as  they  found  them  show- 
ing no  less  indifference  about  providing  for  their  own  defence 
than  in  assisting  their  Neihbours ;  Nay  they  won't  so  much  as 
Consult  with,  or  act  in  Concert  with  the  other  provinces,  refus- 
ing I  find  to  empower  His  Excellency  to  name  Commissioners 
for  that  purpose.  We  have  four  Forts  here  Garrisoned  by  these 
two  Companys  besides  Oswego  &  neither  powder  or  any  Other 
Ammunition  or  a  days  provisions  in  one  of  them  or  in  any  re- 
pair. ...  I  can't  imagine  what  hinders  the  French  from  take- 
ing  Oswego  and  raising  Contributions  at  Albany  they  must  be 
in  great  Straits  for  provisions  or  something  we  have  not  yet 
learned.  ...  I  long  much  to  see  you,  Pray  come  up  as  soon 
as  you  can,  I  have  a  Bed  ready  for  you,  'Tis  impossible  for 
me  at  present  to  pay  my  respects  to  you  at  Colingham,  not 
haveing  One  Lieutenant  here  belonging  to  my  Company,  being 
each  at  an  Out  Garrison  &  only  Old  Capt  Blood  belonging  to 
the  Governour,  who  is  often  sick,  &  you  know  we  are  but  four 
days  March  from  Crown  point." 

And  again  Rutherford  writes  on  June  20,  1745,  when  the 
election  for  what  Clinton  trusted  would  be  a  more  generous 
assembly  had  just  taken  place:  "The  Old  Members  were  re- 
elected here  by  Mr.  Livingston's  giving  up  his  Son,  &  he  and 
all  the  Commissioners,  Justices,  etc.  Joining  their  Interest 
against  Lidius  who  I'm  told  would  have  carry ed  it  against  'em 
all,  had  Mr.  Johnstoun  and  others  who  were  against  the  Old 
Members  come  to  Town,  but  he  &  many  others  despairing  too 
soon  did  not  come  down  and  gave  over  acting  for  Lidius.  I 
hope  this  will  find  you  at  New  York  where  I  have  directed  it 
for  you  &  where  I'm  certain  your  presence  will  be  extremely 
wanted,  &  your  Knowledge  and  experience  in  affairs  will  be 
thoroughly  tryed  in  getting  things  done  with  Such  Spirit  as  is 
necessary  in  So  Critical  a  Juncture  of  affairs  both  at  home  and 


136  Cadwallader  C olden 

abroad,  At  home  from  the  Encroachments  of  the  Assembly; 
Abroad  in  Assisting  against  The  Common  Enemy.  I  see  by  a 
Plan  in  last  week's  newspaper  that  the  Fortifications  of  Louis- 
bourg  are  quite  different  from  what  we  imagined  when  you  was 
here  &  so  strong  that  I  don't  imagine  the  New  England  Forces 
would  ever  have  taken  it  by  themselves  otherwise  than  by  Starve- 
ing  them,  &  now  that  they  have  the  Assistance  of  a  Number  of 
Men  of  War  and  400  Marines  doe  I  think  they  will  [not]  be  able 
to  make  themselves  Masters  of  the  Place  without  great  assistance 
from  this  Province,  For  Boston  is  exhausted  allready  &  Britain  too 
distant,  as  we  ought  to  lay  our  accounts  that  our  Enemy's 
will  do  what  is  properest  for  them  to  do,  Should  they  send  A 
Small  Army  of  French  &  Indians  from  Quebec  to  harass  our 
Forces  from  the  Woods  &  throw  in  a  Supply  of  Men  Sz:  Pro- 
visions to  the  town  'twill  render  it  a  very  tedious  Siege  &  I  hear 
of  no  Lines  thrown  up  by  our  people  to  defend  themselves  & 
Trenches  from  such  Attacks  nor  do  I  believe  'tis  easy  to  do  it 
The  Soil  being  rocky ;  Soe  unless  this  Province  raise  a  Sufficient 
number  of  Men  &  Provisions  Cape  Breton  will  remain  in  French 
hands  &  they'l  soon  repent  their  ill-timed  Saveing,  be  blamed 
by  all  at  home  &  abroad  &  instead  of  thanks  the  Curse  of  their 
Posterity.  Twould  not  be  worth  while  to  send  fewer  than  1600 
&  the  4  Companys  in  all  2000  Men,  the  1600  could  be  raised  by 
detachments  from  the  militia  viz.  so  many  out  of  each  100  de- 
Kvered  by  the  Capts  of  Militia  to  the  Capts  appointed  for  the 
service  &  this  done  as  soon  as  the  vessels  at  New  York  & 
Albany  Sloops  could  be  fitted  to  transport  them  which  I  should 
be  of  opinion  could  be  done  in  a  fortnight  if  Gentlemen  of 
Familys  Interest  &  Character  resolve  to  goe  on  the  expedition  & 
get  about  it  with  Spirit.  Governour  Clinton  has  Allready  done 
everything  in  his  power  to  promote  the  honour  &  Interest  of 
His  Majesty  &  The  Province,  how  ill  he  has  been  supported  in 
so  laudable  designs  hitherto  we  have  seen  to  the  Sorrow  of  all 


A  Colonial  Politician  137 

Men  of  Sense  or  honour  in  the  Province,  &  indeed  I  have  some 
fears  at  seeing  so  many  of  Last  Assembly  re-elected  that  it  may 
prove  difficult  to  make  them  understand  their  true  interest  & 
proper  way  of  serveing  themselves  the  Publick  &  their  pos- 
terity by  doeing  what  is  necessary  for  supporting  the  honour  & 
Interest  of  this  Province  &  annoying  our  Enemy's,  whom  we'll 
find  ten  times  the  expense  of  defending  ourselves  against  when 
attacked  here,  than  in  preventing  that  by  attacking  them  when 
so  fair  an  opportunity  opens  of  doeing  it  to  good  purpose. 
Should  This  Assembly  follow  the  example  of  the  last  I  hope,  I 
dare  say  The  council  will  take  the  most  vigorous  measures  by 
exerting  their  own  power  here  &  proper  applications  at  home, 
to  oblige  the  Assembly  to  confine  themselves  to  their  own  proper 
business  of  levying  what  money  is  judged  necessary  upon 
the  people  by  the  properest  &  least  oppressive  methods,  &  no 
longer  pretend  rebellion,  I  own  I  am  much  surprised  how  any 
former  Governour  could  give  up  His  Majesty  &  their  own 
power  &  Authority  in  so  many  different  things  intrusted  with 
them,  &  now  lost  proves  [it]  soe  prejudicial  to  the  Present  Gov- 
ernour &  to  the  Publick.  As  I  had  the  pleasure  of  talking  these 
affairs  all  over  with  you  when  you  did  me  the  honour  of  A  Visit 
here,  You  know  my  way  of  thinking  on  these  matters  &  if  my 
comeing  down,  tho'  'twould  be  very  inconvenient,  can  be  of  the 
Smallest  Service  I  am  ready  at  a  minute's  warning.  I  beg  your 
thought  of  affairs  as  soon  As  you  ;-eceive  this  for  I  know  by  that 
time  you  can  form  some  judgment  of  them." 

Though  elsewhere,  as  in  Albany  County,  the  members  of  the 
last  assembly  were  generally  elected  to  the  new,  the  dissolution 
did  for  Delancey  just  what  he  had  probably  meant  it  should  ac- 
comphsh.  For  Philipse,  long  time  speaker,  and  the  one  man  who 
had  ever  opposed  the  chief  justice  with  success,  was  defeated, 
and  David  Jones,  a  member  for  Queens  County,  who  had  been 
curiously  intimate  with  Delancey,  though  they  had  been  of 


138  Cadwallader  Colden 

opposing  forces,  was  put  in  his  place.  Colden  had  ears  to  hear, 
and  wrote  begging  the  governor  to  make  his  excuses  to  the 
council.  The  absolute  cessation  of  the  work,  and  therefore  of  the 
profits,  of  the  surveyor  general's  office  due  to  the  French  war, 
the  increase  in  the  expense  of  living  arising  from  the  same  cause, 
together  with  the  recent  marriage  of  a  son,  made  it  necessary, 
he  said,  that  he  should  devote  himself  more  exclusively  to  his  pri- 
vate affairs.  "The  attendance  on  the  Council,"  he  continued  in 
his  letter  to  Chnton,  "puts  the  Gentlemen  who  live  in  town  to 
no  extra  expense  &  their  number  is  sufficient.  We  in  the  coun- 
try may  therefore  hope  to  be  excused  when  there  is  no  necessity 
but  if  it  be  tho't  requisite  that  some  of  us  who  Uve  in  the  country 
attend  as  Mr.  Livingston  did  not  attend  last  Session  &  has  not 
in  general  given  his  attendance  so  often  as  I  have  done  &  has 
not  the  same  excuse  which  I  have,  I  hope  my  excuse  may  be 
preferr'd  to  his.  I  suppose  that  the  Business  of  the  Session 
is  concerted  before  the  meeting  &  when  that  is  don  as  I  take 
it  the  business  of  the  Council  is  little  else  beside  formal  because 
we  have  no  parties  nor  disputes  among  us.  Whenever  my 
attendance  shall  be  thought  of  real  use  I  shall  very  cheerfully 
give  it  but  when  it  is  not  so  I  hope  it  will  not  be  insisted  upon 
or  that  Mr.  Livingston  &  I  be  so  far  indulged  as  to  give  our 
attendance  by  turns.  As  I  am  in  no  way  upon  the  reserve  in 
giving  any  assistance  at  this  time  I  shall  freely  tell  you  one 
thing  which  in  my  opinion  ought  to  be  tho't  of  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Assembly  &  measures  concerted  concerning  it. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  taking  of  Cape  Breton  will  give  un- 
easy apprehensions  to  Canada  &  that  they'l  expect  to  be  at- 
tacked next.  They  must  of  course  think  of  everything  to  pre- 
vent this.  I  know  of  nothing  in  their  power  Ukely  to  be  so 
effectual  as  inciting  our  own  Indians  to  revolt  against  us  which 
with  the  assistance  of  the  French  8z:  French  Indians  would 
give  us  work  enough  at    home  &  that  the  French  are  actually 


A  Colonial  Politician  139 

upon  this  project  I  think  appears  plainly  enough  by  the  conduct 
of  our  own  Indians  at  this  time.  Our  Indians  the  Mohawks 
in  particular  by  all  accounts  are  very  much  dissatisfied  &  have 
been  so  many  years,  &  several  of  them  gon  this  Summer  to 
Canada  under  this  ill  disposition.  When  I  was  among  them 
about  seven  years  since  they  were  so  &  by  all  the  information 
I  can  obtain  it  has  not  lessen 'd  but  increased.  It  seems  to  be 
likewise  certain  that  the  Indians  are  so  far  from  having  any 
Confidence  in  the  men  who  have  the  Commission  for  Indian 
affairs  that  they  have  an  absolute  diffidence  of  them.  Neither 
have  the  people  of  the  City  of  Albany  any  confidence  in  them, 
it  is  impossible  then  that  the  Indian  affairs  can  be  well  managed 
in  their  hands. 

"  It  is  not  difficult  to  discover  from  what  this  arises  but  be  it 
from  whatever  cause  This  diffidence  of  it  makes  it  necessary 
to  put  the  management  in  other  hands  &  in  my  opinion  the 
Indian  affairs  will  be  better  managed  by  one  or  two  than  by 
such  a  number  as  now  are  in  commission  especially  in  time  of 
war  which  requires  in  all  urgent  cases  at  least  the  greatest 
secrecy  and  greatest  dispatch.  There  is  no  doubt  it  will  be 
easier  to  find  one  or  two  men  fit  to  be  entrusted  than  twenty 
as  the  case  now  is.  Perhaps  this  may  occasion  a  greater 
expence  because  when  people  serve  the  publick  without  any 
private  view  they'l  expect  different  pay  from  what  will  satisfy 
those  who  make  use  of  public  employment  only  to  their  private 
profit  but  be  that  whatever  since  it  is  necessary  it  must  be  pro- 
vided for  &  in  my  opinion  it  is  more  necessary  for  the  defence 
of  the  province  than  the  Fortifications  about  the  city  of  New 
York.  I  am  likewise  of  opinion  that  His  Excellency's  meeting 
with  the  Indians  will  not  be  of  that  use  which  is  expected  unless 
the  present  disposition  of  the  Indians  be  first  taken  off  by  a 
continued  and  assiduous  application  of  such  means  as  may  be 
necessary.     Now,  Sr,  if  such  an  expense  be  so  necessary  as  it 


140  Cadwallader  C olden 

appears  to  me  must  it  be  provided  for  whatever  it  be  but  I 
believe  that  if  the  money  usually  given  to  the  Comrs  of  Indian 
affairs  for  that  Service  and  the  Duties  on  the  Indian  trade  were 
put  under  proper  regulation  the  extra  expense  will  not  be  so 
great  as  at  first  may  be  imagined.  Now,  Sr,  if  there  be  any  reso- 
lution to  take  the  Indian  affairs  under  consideration  next  ses- 
sion to  any  purpose  I  will  if  desired  cheerfully  go  to  town  to 
give  my  assistance  if  my  assistance  shal  be  thought  useful 
from  my  formerly  having  taken  as  much  pains  to  be  informed 
of  the  Indian  affairs  and  treaties  with  the  EngHsh  &  French 
but  if  nothing  more  is  likely  to  pass  the  Council  than  the  neces- 
sary money  bills  &  the  common  affairs,  I  hope  for  the  reason 
I  have  given  I  may  be  excused  &  for  this  purpose  I  beg  of  you 
(if  you  think  it  proper)  to  convey  what  I  now  write  to  the  Gentle- 
men of  the  Council." 

Then  proceeding  to  prove  what  he  said,  Golden  sketched  the 
official  career  of  these  Indian  commissioners.  Traders  for  the 
most  part,  they  had  again  and  again  been  accused  by  the  Ind- 
ians of  fraud  and  bad  faith,  and  they  had  often  richly  deserved 
the  accusation.  Indeed,  that  they  used  their  position  to  force 
the  Indian  traders  visiting  Albany  to  come  to  them  first,  and  then 
had  used  the  colony  money  to  make  them  so  drunk  that  they 
could  cheat  them  as  they  would,  was  only  one  of  their  customary 
methods,  to  which  Golden  himself  was  willing  to  swear.  But 
for  their  complete  success  it  was  necessary  that  the  Indians 
should  be  neutral  in  war.  Under  cover  of  the  neutrality  of  the 
last  war,  when  these  commissioners  had  been  so  untrammelled 
that  they  had  actually  sold  ammunition  at  Albany  to  eastern 
Indians  then  fighting  the  English  of  the  more  eastern  colonies, 
they  had  made  fortunes.  Naturally,  they  were  now  eager  to 
increase  them,  and  apparently  Clinton  was  going  to  shut  his 
eyes  to  their  methods.  He  did  urge  the  prohibition  of  trade 
with  the  French  Indians,  enforcing  his  recommendation  with 


A  Colonial  Politician  141 

some  of  Colden's  instances,  but  he  said  nothing  about  the 
commissioners,  and  Golden  was  not  obliged  to  redeem  his 
magnanimous  offer.  He  kept  his  eye  on  the  Indians,  however, 
the  Indians  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  as  well  as  those 
of  New  York,  and  industriously  kept  the  governor  informed  of 
what  he  saw  in  letters  that  effected  little  more  than  the  satis- 
faction of  his  own  conscience,  some  disappearing  in  committees 
of  council,  others  in  the  assembly,  while  two  at  least  bear 
Clinton's  reproachful  endorsement:  "Report  never  made 
though  called  for  by  me  several  times."*  But  the  autumn 
brought  a  comforting  vindication  of  his  judgment.  For  when 
the  Indians  were  met  at  Albany  by  Clinton  and  representatives 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Connecticut,  and  were  told  of  the 
attacks  being  made  on  the  eastern  colonies  by  the  eastern 
Indians,  and  asked  to  avenge  them,  they  were  so  indifferent 
and  made  such  frivolous  excuses,  that  the  Massachusetts  com- 
missioners openly  and  dramatically  accused  the  Albany  people, 
and  especially  Councillor  Livingston,  of  the  very  purposes  and 
plans  that  Colden  had  condemned.  Now  it  happened  that 
this  same  Philip  Livingston  was  one  of  Clinton's  attendant 
advisers.  Therefore,  to  the  commissioners'  heated  demands 
that  the  Indians  be  forced  to  give  evidence  of  their  good  faith, 
Clinton,  himself,  offered  a  frivolous  excuse,  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts men  left  in  a  rage.* 

It  was  small  wonder  if  Clinton's  policy  was  rather  hap- 
hazard. The  wonder  is  how  he  got  on  at  all.  By  himself  he 
could  do  little ;  he  could  not  write  his  own  speeches,  he  could 
not  argue;  and  Delancey  was  too  busy  with  his  own  plans  to 
give  him  more  than  a  perfunctory  assistance.  Indeed,  his 
plans  were  such  that  it  was  all  the  better  for  them  when  CHnton 
blundered.     Hence  Clinton  refused  to  reenforce  the  post  at 

'  Mss.  Proceedings  of  the  Executive  Council,  January  15,  1746. 
»  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  296-306. 


142  Cadwallader  C olden 

Saratoga  if  the  assembly  neglected  to  put  it  in  decent  repair; 
and  when  the  news  of  its  destruction  arrived  in  the  midst  of 
the  wrangling  about  its  preservation,  fixed  the  blame  with  such 
tempestuous  violence  that  the  really  guilty  and  frightened 
members  regained  their  good  repute  and  courage;  hence  he 
deeply  offended  the  militia  by  despatching  some  of  their  number 
on  frontier  duty,  and  then  was  obliged  to  look  on  helplessly 
while  the  rest  refused  to  mount  the  usual  guard  at  his  house; 
hence  he  criticised  the  Indian  commissioners  with  such  a  good- 
will that  they  wrote  it  would  give  them  great  pleasure  to  resign ; 
and  hence  at  last,  he  quarrelled  with  Delancey  himself,  the 
political  "chief  "  of  the  province.  The  break  occurred  one  night 
after  dinner,  and  neither  was  in  a  judicial  frame  of  mind ;  yet 
when  Clinton  blurted  out  that  he  was  tired  of  being  managed 
and  proposed  in  the  future  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  his  posi- 
tion, and  Delancey  flung  himself  out  of  the  room  vowing  that 
Clinton's  life  should  be  made  miserable,  they  only  did  as  they 
had  long  wanted  to  do  in  their  more  rational  moments. 

As  usual,  fortune  was  kind  to  Delancey.  The  governor  had 
scarcely  recovered  from  the  shock  of  parting  when  word  arrived 
from  Newcastle  that  his  government  must  raise  and  provision 
a  quota  of  volunteers  to  join  in  an  expedition  for  the  conquest 
of  Canada.  The  troops  raised  in  the  colonies  from  Virginia 
to  Connecticut  were  to  attack  the  French  by  land,  while  those 
from  the  eastern  colonies,  supported  by  a  fleet  and  eight  bat- 
tahons  of  regulars  from  home,  were  to  attack  them  by  water. 
Clinton  was  in  despair.  He  must  win  the  Indians  to  active 
participation  in  the  scheme,  he  must  persuade  the  assembly 
to  finance  it.  Yet  how  was  this  possible  with  no  one  to  prompt 
him,  no  one  to  assist  him  in  any  way?  He  had,  moreover, 
something  new  to  contend  with  in  the  form  of  a  steering  com- 
mittee organized  jointly  by  council  and  assembly.  This  com- 
mittee, which  had  Delancey  for  chairman  and  Horsmanden 


A  Colonial  Politician  143 

for  secretary,  prepared  legislation  and  outlined  policy,  report- 
ing once  a  week,  and  from  the  beginning  it  enjoyed  supreme 
power  and  influence.  It  swayed  the  assembly,  while  among 
the  members  of  the  council,  Livingston  and  Horsmanden, 
Cortlandt  and  Bayard,  Delancey  and  Murray,  were  its  leaders 
and  spokesmen.  This  left  Rutherford,  Golden,  and  Kennedy, 
the  first  a  regular  army  ofiicer  whose  place  in  war  was  on  the 
frontier,  and  the  last-named  a  man  who  was  as  slow  with  the 
pen  as  the  governor  himself.  To  Golden,  then,  Glinton  in 
his  extremity  turned.  To  the  formal  summons  issued  to  all 
absent  councillors  he  added  an  urgent  personal  appeal,  and 
when,  about  the  middle  of  June,  1746,  the  senior  councillor 
arrived  in  New  York,  quite  unprepared  for  the  change  in  politi- 
cal relations  which  had  taken  place,  he  was  positively  frightened 
at  his  own  excessively  cordial  welcome  and  at  the  sight  of  the 
lonely  governor.  "As  I  have  been  long  from  the  public  busi- 
ness," he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Golden,  "I  cannot  with  any  counte- 
nance ask  leave  to  return  home  at  this  time  &  it  would  not 
easily  be  granted  by  the  Governour  unless  there  were  a  very 
evident  reason  for  it.  Notwithstanding  of  this  I  wish  very 
heartily  to  be  with  you  for  my  being  in  town  at  this  time  has 
occasioned  a  great  deal  of  Jealousy  among  some  folks.  To 
remove  it  in  some  measure  I  design  to  go  to-morrow  to  West- 
chester &  to  be  absent  two  or  three  days.  The  Governour 
desired  me  with  some  concern  to  go  with  him  to  Albany  but  I 
with  a  great  deal  of  earnestness  declined  it  &  I  hope  to  hear 
no  more  of  it.  We  have  no  news  as  yet  but  every  moment 
expected." 

Golden 's  hopes  were  vain.  "I  have  the  honour  of  yours  of 
the  3d  Instant  &  your  Essay  which  I  expect  great  pleasure 
from,"  wrote  Rutherford,  "  &:  when  I  have  perused  it  you  may 
depend  on  my  tho't  of  it  in  the  freest  manner,  but  now  the  Beat- 
ing of  Drums  for  the  New  levys,  the  attention  to  news  from 


144  Cadwallader  C olden 

Canada,  Europe,  &  Cape  Breton  &  how  preparations  are  going 
at  New  York  &  the  neighbouring  provinces  for  our  great  Enter- 
prise against  Canada,  makes  me  write  you  in  a  very  different 
Strain,  &  beg  your  opinion  of  the  manner  that  aflfair  is  proposed 
to  be  carry'd  on  &  what  information  you  can  give  me  of  the 
above  articles.  As  you  are,  I  hear,  now  at  New  York,  pray  get 
notice  as  soon  as  possible  how  the  new  Battallions  raised  are 
to  command  Sz:  how  the  four  companys  here  are  to  be  disposed 
of  my  present  view  &  ambition  being  to  get  the  Rank  of  Lieut. 
ColP  by  means  of  the  new  levies  &  at  the  same  time  keep  my 
company  in  order  to  have  something  certain,  how  I'm  to  bring 
this  about,  have  no  notion  of  at  present;  so  pray  say  nothing 
of  my  design  to  any  person  whatever,  only  make  the  necessary 
enquiry  that  I  may  know  how  to  apply  by  being  amongst  the 
first  to  know  how  things  are  to  be  managed.  I  must  insist  on 
your  being  present  here  with  the  Governour,  when  he  comes  to 
treat  with  the  Indians,  for  many  reasons,  most  of  which  you  can 
easily  guess,  the  rest  I'l  tell  you  at  meeting  &  only  assure  you 
at  present  that  'tis  necessary  for  the  pubUck  good  &  as  I  depend 
upon  your  being  my  guest  here  I'l  take  you  shall  be  free  from 
the  noise  &  hubbub  in  town  for  my  house  stands  in  a  quiet 
spot  opposite  to  the  Recorders." 

"I  came  yesterday  from  Westchester,"  wrote  Colden  him- 
self on  July  3d.  "I  staid  longer  there  than  would  otherwise 
[have]  done  in  order  to  have  got  soon  home  that  I  might  avoid 
what  other  people  generally  are  fond  of;  that  is  that  I  might 
be  as  little  concern'd  in  the  conduct  of  affairs  as  possible.  But 
I  know  not,  all  things  are  at  a  stand  &  I  am  affray'd  it  will 
not  be  in  my  power  to  keep  so  much  unconcerned  as  I  wish 
to  be  without  laying  aside  all  concern  for  the  success  of  the 
Expedition,  &  for  the  success  of  which  I  think  no  man  living 
in  this  Country  can  be  indifferent. 

"The  Council  is  call'd  at  nine  this  morning,"  he  continued, 


A  Colonial  Politician  i45 

"  &  I  write  this  expecting  Mr.  Clinton  every  moment  to  call  for 
it  before  I  go  into  Council."     "Yesterday  morning,"  he  adds 
on  Friday,  "we  had  a  strong  debate  in  Council  who  should  go 
to  Albany  with  the  Govemour.     Every  one  were  for  my  going 
notwithstanding  all  the  opposition  I  could  make,  &  I  am  affraid  it 
will  fall  to  my  lot  tho'  I  shall  use  all  my  endeavours  against  it." 
It  was  usual  for  a  governor,  when  he  held  a  conference  with  the 
Indians,  to  be  accompanied  by  three  members  of  council,  the 
quorum  for  ordinary  business.     But  on  this  occasion,  because 
of  the  great  importance  of  the  work  to  be  done,  CUnton  asked 
for  as  large  a  delegation  as  possible.     Every  one,  however, 
had  an  excuse.     The  chief  justice  could  not  leave  the  city; 
Horsmanden  would  not  go  unless  he  was  paid  for  former  jour- 
neys ;  and  they  all  said  it  was  Colden's  turn,  who,  with  Living- 
ston and  Rutherford,  already  on  the  spot,  would  be  all  that 
was  necessary.     Colden  did  well  to  hesitate.     Painstaking  and 
logical,  learned  and  strenuous,  he  must  have  known  that  he  was 
no  match  for  the  careless  and  superficial,  but  witty  and  brilUant 
Delancey,  and  to  assist  the  governor  meant  to  fight  with  him. 
Delancey,  moreover,  could  count  on  the  comfortable  support 
of  a  large  family  connection.     His  brother-in-law,  who  as  plain 
Peter  Warren,  had  married  Delancey's  sister,  had  just  achieved 
rather  more  distinction  than  he  deserved  as  admiral  of  the  fleet 
that  had  laid  siege  to  Louisburg,  had  become  Sir  Peter,  and  a 
man  of  European  influence.     His  Cambridge  tutor,  friend,  and 
correspondent  had  just  been  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury; 
and  he  himself  held  a  commission  which  it  would  take  a  ministry 
to  break.     Yet  Colden  began  to  think  that  there  must  be  many 
steady,    conservative    inhabitants,    indifferent    to    Delancey's 
easy,  democratic  ways,  and  ready  to  join  a  leader  of  their  own 
type.     Then,  too,  it  seemed  unfair  to  his  family  to  refuse  a 
possible  opportunity  for  advancement.      Therefore  he  yielded, 
and  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  July  he  was  writing  to  Mrs. 


146  Cadwallader  C  olden 

Golden  from  Albany:  "We  did  not  get  to  this  place  until 
Munday  afternoon  Si  did  not  go  a  shoar  till  tuesday  morning.  I 
am  now  at  Captn  Rutherfords  but  their  house  is  not  very  con- 
venient &  I  am  affray'd  it  may  be  troublesome  to  them." 

It  was  no  holiday  task  that  lay  before  him.  "We  are  con- 
stantly employ 'd  ab't  something  or  other  but  it  will  be  hard  to 
say  what  we  have  don";  "There  is  something  allmost  every 
hour  to  take  up  my  time  because  I  find  it  necessary  to  think  of 
more  than  what  properly  belong  to  me;"  —  expressions  such  as 
these  fill  his  letters,  otherwise  buoyantly  cheerful.  When, 
moreover,  he  was  able  to  snatch  a  moment  from  his  occupations 
for  exercise  and  fresh  air,  he  feared  to  walk  in  the  town  where 
smallpox  was  epidemic,  and  if  he  took  to  the  country  beyond, 
his  expeditions  were  quite  likely  to  be  cut  short  by  the  whiz  of 
an  Indian  arrow.  Unfriendly  Algonquins,  indeed,  seemed  more 
in  evidence  than  the  Indians  whom  the  governor  had  come  to 
meet.  The  Massachusetts  commissioners  arrived;  news  was 
received  of  a  French  army  at  Cape  Breton;  the  troops  began 
to  straggle  in  and  not  a  sachem  had  appeared.  The  Indians 
were  in  good  hands,  however,  for  while  the  commissioners  were 
still  nominally  managing  their  affairs,  Clinton  had  induced 
WiUiam  Johnson,  Admiral  Warren's  dashing  Irish  nephew,  to 
corral  them  and  bring  them  to  Albany  in  good  temper.  His 
task  had  proved  even  harder  than  was  expected.  The  Indians 
were  full  of  real  or  pretended  suspicions  and  fears,  and  it  was 
not  until  Johnson  put  on  blanket  and  feathers,  danced  with 
them,  played  with  them,  and  even  lived  with  them,  that  they 
consented  to  be  led,  gay  with  war  paint  and  noisy  with  excite- 
ment, to  the  historic  meeting-place. 

Clinton's  anxieties,  however,  were  by  no  means  over.  "One 
day,"  Colden  informed  his  wife  soon  after  the  Indians'  arrival, 
"as  the  Govr  complain 'd  of  the  trouble  he  had  with  the  Provi- 
sions, &  that  he  did  not  know  who  to  trust,  I  took  the  opportunity 


A  Colonial  Politician  147 

to  recommend  my  son  to  be  Commissary  for  Provisions.  This 
as  I  take  it  will  be  more  profitable  than  a  Captns  Commissn  as 
it  usually  has  a  good  Sallary  annexed  to  it  but  the  Commissn 
cannot  be  made  certain  till  the  General  arrive  because  perhaps 
he  may  have  the  nomination,  but  tho'  it  should  be  so  the  Govrs 
interest,  with  Captn  Rutherfords  and  my  own,  may  obtain  it  if 
he  do  not  bring  one  with  him.  I  cannot  tell  that  Alexander 
would  receive  such  a  commission,  because  they  must  go  along 
with  the  army,  but  I  could  recommend  him  to  it  more  freely 
than  Cad  because  he  is  more  used  to  business  &  it  will  require 
much  writing  and  exactness  of  accounts.  I  leave  it  to  you  & 
them  to  do  as  you  shall  think  proper,  because  I  cannot  advise 
any  further,  it  is  attended  with  so  many  uncertainties  ;  only  I 
would  not  let  such  an  offer  pass  without  giving  my  children  an 
opportunity,  if  they  think  fit.  ..." 

In  excellent  health  and  spirits,  Colden  was  inclined  to  see  a 
possible  good  even  in  apparent  evil.  There  were  troubles  ahead, 
however,  which  even  the  most  foreboding  scarcely  could  have 
divined,  and  Colden 's  account  of  an  incident  which  was  to  cause 
him  infinite  anxiety  was,  very  natually,  quite  undisturbed  by 
premonitions  of  the  future.  "The  Governour  has  been  indis- 
posed," he  wrote,  "but  is  now  recover'd,  tho'  it  is  not  thought 
proper  for  him  to  go  abroad  in  this  rainy  weather  &  for  that 
reason  I  spoke  to  the  Indians  in  his  name  yesterday.  It  seemed 
well  rec'd.  No  news  of  the  fleet  or  of  a  General  but  every 
moment  expected."  * 

The  conference  had  been  as  successful  as  any  Indian  con- 
ference could  be,  but  Admiral  Warren  and  Governor  Shirley, 
of  Massachusetts,  wanted  something  more  than  an  amiable 
interview.  Accordingly,  they  wrote  to  Clinton  asking  him  to 
join  in  an  immediate  attack  on  Crown  Point,  the  French  post 
on  Lake  Champlain,   and  Clinton  referred  the  letter  to  his 

^  To  Mrs.  Colden,  August  20,  1746. 


148  Cadwallader  C olden 

attendant  councillors.  Extraordinary  business,  according  to 
his  instructions,  required  a  council  of  five,  and  this  was  extraor- 
dinary business  indeed.  But  the  three  members  in  Albany, 
though  sensible  of  the  risk  they  ran,  heartily  advised  coopera- 
tion. The  responsibility  thus  taken  from  his  shoulders,  Clinton 
hastened  to  promise  assistance,  gracefully  leaving  the  choice 
of  a  general  to  Warren  and  Shirley.  "I  v^^rote  Alexander  the 
beginning  of  this  week,"  says  Colden,  late  in  August,  "wherein 
I  inform'd  him  that  we  had  succeeded  to  our  wish  in  our  Treaty 
with  the  Indians.  If  the  fleet  had  arriv'd  I  doubt  not  every- 
thing had  succeed'd  in  like  manner.  The  uncertainties  we  are 
under  will  certainly  keep  us  longer  in  this  place  than  was  imagined. 
An  Express  was  sent  to  Boston  last  night  at  the  return  of  which 
we  shall  take  our  final  resolutions."  On  the  19th  of  September 
he  reported  :  "An  express  we  sent  to  Boston  was  detained  there 
so  long  that  it  was  3  weeks  before  we  receiv'd  an  answer.  The 
General  is  now  every  day  expected  —  One  Waldo  from  Boston. 
A  vessel  from  Cape  Breton  came  in  which  in  her  passage  saw 
30  ships  whether  French  or  English  she  cannot  tell.  Capt°' 
Roberts  and  Marshall  are  appointed  Lieutenant  Collonels, 
&  Captains  Clark  and  Rutherford  Majors  of  the  New  York 
forces."  At  last  it  seemed  as  if  something  was  to  be  done. 
"The  General  is  not  yet  arriv'd,"  was  Colden's  next  bulletin. 
"One  half  of  the  New  York  forces,  viz.  Colonel  Robert's  Bat- 
talion, have  receiv'd  orders  to  be  in  readiness  to  march.  What 
the  other  -Battalion  is  to  do  I  know  not.  The  Gov""  is  making 
ready  to  return.  I  would  be  glad  to  have  leave  to  go  before 
him,  but  I  must  not  swallow  the  Cow  &  stick  on  the  tail.  The 
company  raised  in  our  County  is  like  to  have  officers  to  their 
own  liking." 

Unfortunately,  it  had  been  a  French,  not  an  English,  fleet 
that  had  been  seen  on  the  American  coast.  In  fact,  the  Eng- 
lish fleet  had  sighted  it  some  weeks  earlier,  and  for  that  good 


A  Colonial  Politician  149 

reason  never  crossed  the  Atlantic.  For  the  same  reason 
the  New  England  levies,  confidently  expected  at  Albany,  were 
flying  to  protect  their  farms  and  homesteads,  and  Canada  was 
10  remain  undisturbed  during  that  year  at  least.  The  news  of 
this  was  long  in  reaching  New  York,  but  fleet  or  no  fleet  it  was 
nearly  time  for  the  assembly,  and  the  governor  was  obliged 
to  return.  However,  since  Governor  Gooch,  of  Virginia,  who 
had  been  offered  the  command  of  all  the  forces,  had  now  defi- 
nitely refused  it,  and  the  New  England  man  chosen  to  command 
the  Crown  Point  division  was  so  mysteriously  detained,  Clinton 
was  commander-in-chief  of  the  troops  on  the  spot,  and  their 
winter  campaign  must  be  planned  before  he  left  for  the  capital. 
As  a  result  of  his  deliberations  with  his  council,  Colonel  Roberts 
was  put  in  command,  and  it  was  decided  that  the  New  York 
levies  should  march  to  the  carry,  where  Clinton  had  long  wished 
that  a  fort  might  be  built,  and  there  wait  for  news  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts troops.  If  this  did  not  arrive  within  a  certain  time, 
they  were  to  put  up  winter  quarters  and  be  on  hand  for  an 
attack  in  the  early  spring.  The  only  difficulty  was  that  the 
provisions  for  these  levies  were  in  the  hands  of  the  assembly's 
commissioners  at  Albany,  and  by  the  letter  of  the  law  must  be 
delivered  directly  to  the  captains  of  the  companies.  Colden, 
however,  being  authorized  to  sound  these  men  and  to  threaten 
the  loss  of  their  position  should  they  prove  recalcitrant,  reported 
that  by  the  aid  of  that  stimulus  they  had  seemed  open  to  reason. 
It  was,  therefore,  decided  in  council,  that  when  the  time  came, 
the  deUvery  of  the  provisions  to  the  commander-in-chief  should 
be  requested ;  that  if  this  was  refused,  an  offer  should  be  made 
to  pay  for  their  transportation ;  and  that  if  the  provisions  were 
still  withheld,  they  should  be  impressed  by  a  warrant.  This 
warrant  was  then  drawn  in  council,  and  the  governor  left  it 
behind  him,  when,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  three  months, 
he  returned  to  New  York,  followed  a  few  days  later  by  Colden. 


150  Cadwallader  C olden 


III 

Once  again  the  assembly  was  to  meet,  with  Golden  as  the 
governor's  tutor  and  guide.  Had  he  but  known  it,  his  great 
moment  had  come.  It  was  true  that  the  assembly  had  fallen 
into  the  habit  of  considering  their  governors  merely  as  gentle- 
men with  a  natural  tendency  to  misappropriate  the  funds, 
which  tendency  they  intended  to  make  very  difficult  of  grati- 
fication. It  was  equally  true  that  the  present  governor  had  his 
own  ideas  about  the  expenditures  which  were  still  under  his 
control.  But  it  seems  probable  that  Golden  with  invaluable 
results  could  have  exacted  a  businesslike  administration  as  the 
price  of  his  very  necessary  services.  As  it  was,  he  intended, 
"by  showing  as  much  as  possible  a  respectful  behaviour  to  them 
&  by  making  no  attempt  to  gain  a  personal  power  to  give  no  real 
cause  of  resentment."  ^  With  this  peaceable  intention  he  wrote 
the  governor's  opening  speech. 

At  this  time  the  ostensible  difference  between  Glinton  and 
the  assembly  sprang  from  their  respective  interpretations  of 
the  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  Newcastle,  having  said 
that  the  colony  was  to  raise  and  provision  a  certain  number  of 
troops,  had  ordered  Glinton  to  send  these  off  on  an  offensive 
expedition,  and  to  meet  and  give  presents  to  the  Indians.  But 
not  a  word  was  said  of  the  pay  of  the  troops,  while  the  financial 
responsibility  for  their  transportation,  the  transportation  of 
their  provisions,  and  for  the  Indian  auxiliaries  was  left  unde- 
termined. GUnton  wanted  the  assembly  to  save  the  crown 
the  expense  of  the  Indians,  and  pay,  at  least  temporarily,  for 
the  transportation  of  the  provisions;  not  only  the  assembly, 
but  the  council  and  the  merchants,  insisted  that  Glinton  pay  for 
everything,  the  payment  of  which  was  unspecified,  by  bills  of 

*  Golden  to  Mr.  George  Clarke,  November  26,  1746. 


A  Colonial  Politician  151 

exchange  on  the  English  treasury,  or  on  the  paymaster  of  the 
army.  The  ;^40,ooo,  which  the  assembly  promptly  voted,  was 
to  be  spent  in  bounties  and  provisions  only,  and  the  surplus 
was  devoted  to  increasing  the  number  of  volunteers  called  for. 
For  this  reason,  during  the  summer  Clinton  had  been  obliged 
to  draw  on  the  crown.  Yet  every  one  reaUzed  that  if  his  bills 
were  honoured,  he  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  turn  that 
dishonest  penny  which  they  had  been  trying  to  keep  away  from 
him.  Indeed,  Golden  had  already  urged  in  vain  a  method  of 
accounts  that  would  be  above  reproach,  and  there  were  already 
rumours  that  the  presents  to  the  Indians  had  not  been  as  hand- 
some as  they  were  expensive. 

Such,  then,  was  supposed  to  be  the  chief  difficulty  between 
governor  and  legislature.  But  Golden  remembered  that  there 
had  been  an  evident  desire  to  involve  GUnton  in  insuperable 
difficulty,  and  was  quite  unable  to  permit  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  extricated  to  speak  for  itself.  Those  who  had  wished 
him  ill  must  not  only  realize  that  their  plot  had  failed,  but  they 
must  know  that  it  had  first  been  recognized.  So  the  governor's 
speech  invited  its  hearers  to  admire  the  transformation  of 
Indians  sulky  from  mismanagement,  into  Indians  cheerful  and 
eager  to  act ;  exhorted  them  to  harmony ;  warned  them  against 
the  artful,  designing  men  who  had  brought  about  the  present 
discord;  and  grandiloquently  urged  them  to  preserve  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  constitution.^  This  was  the  official  Golden  in  his 
best  form,  and  his  plea  for  harmony  at  once  put  an  end  to  any 
hope  of  it.  But  the  assembly  was  in  a  bad  humour,  even  before 
its  presentation.  For  the  governor,  who  was  still  feeling 
wretchedly  ill,  had  sent  for  the  speaker,  and,  by  Golden's  advice, 
had  given  him  the  speech  instead  of  going  with  it  himself,  to 
the  place  of  assembly.  The  assembly  chose  to  consider  them- 
selves slighted  by  this  unprecedented   proceeding,   while  the 

'  Journal  and  Proceedings  of  the  General  Assembly,  II,  125-126. 


152  Cadwallader  C olden 

innuendoes  of  the  speech  made  them  furious.  It  was  necessary 
to  relieve  their  minds,  and  when  the  governor  sent  a  message 
requesting  without  peremptoriness  that  they  provide  for  the  trans- 
portation of  the  additional  provisions  they  had  just  voted,  as 
otherwise  the  plans  of  the  commander-in-chief  would  be  frus- 
trated, they  decided  on  a  characteristic  document,  known  as 
a  representation/  While  it  was  being  prepared,  moreover, 
word  came  that  on  the  refusal  of  the  commissioners  of  provi- 
sions at  Albany  to  deliver  their  charge  to  Roberts,  the  mayor 
and  sheriff  by  his  order  had  used  the  impress  warrant  to  seize 
provisions  for  fourteen  hundred  men  for  two  months.  The 
assembly  burst  into  a  series  of  resolves,  accusing  Holland,  Col- 
den,  and  Roberts  of  "arbitrary,  illegal,  and  unwarrantable 
conduct,"  and  demanding  their  prosecution;  and  then  followed 
these  up  by  their  representation. 

This  document  was  perhaps  chiefly  remarkable  as  showing 
the  possible  difference  between  points  of  view.  The  assembly 
had  observed  no  Indian  disaffection ;  they  were  not  impressed, 
therefore,  by  its  removal.  If  it  had  existed,  Clinton,  to  whom 
they  had  given  money  for  a  treaty  and  presents  the  year  before, 
could  best  tell  why,  and  they  wished  to  look  at  the  evidence. 
They  considered  themselves  fully  capable  of  guarding  against 
artful,  designing  men,  but  they  feared  that  a  man  of  that  descrip- 
tion had  gained  the  governor's  confidence,  and  they  begged  him 
to  be  watchful.  Finally,  they  frankly  disapproved  his  winter 
camp,  where  desertions  would  be  frequent,  and  where  sickness 
would  soon  weaken  those  who  were  left.  The  administration 
replied  to  the  double  shot  in  ahernation.  The  governor  dis- 
approved the  open  criticism  of  his  winter  camp ;  he  threatened 
to  complain  to  the  king ;  and  he  assumed  the  responsibility  of 
the  provisions  incident,  saying  that  what  was  done  had  been 
done  by  his  order,  approved  by  his  council  and  a  council  of 

»  Journal,  II,  128,  et  seq. 


A  Colonial  Politician  153 

war.  Especially  did  he  object  to  the  insinuations  thrown  at 
Golden  and  himself,  and  though  he  declared  that  he  would  be 
dehghted  to  help  unearth  possible  fraud,  he  positively  refused 
to  order  a  prosecution.  But  the  assembly  had  no  intention  of 
letting  the  ball  drop.  Voting  the  answer  unsatisfactory,  they 
declared  that  whoever  was  trying  to  create  and  encourage  bad 
feelings  between  the  governor  and  themselves  was  an  enemy  to 
the  constitution  they  had  been  urged  to  revere,  and  that  until 
redress  was  given,  they  would  refuse  further  suppUes.  Where- 
upon CUnton,  with  unusual  diplomacy,  promised  that  the  thing 
should  not  occur  again,  because  the  provisions  would,  he  ex- 
pected, be  delivered  when  occasion  required. 

Golden,  meanwhile,  was  quite  unconscious  of  having  said 
anything  he  should  not  have  said,  and  his  letters  are  those  of  a 
cheerful  martyr.  "We  have  nothing  new  here  besides  what 
is  in  the  prints,"  he  wrote  home  on  November  3,  1746.  "It 
is  certain  that  the  French  fleet  is  gon  &  we  are  freed  from  all 
fears  of  them  &  the  account  of  the  miserable  condition  they 
were  in  as  related  in  the  prints  is  true,  &  worse  than  there 
related.  I  saw  a  letter  from  the  Gapf*  of  the  flag  of  truce  that 
left  them  after  they  had  sail'd  from  Gheboucta  harbour.  We 
hear  nothing  of  our  fleet  &  we  still  remain  under  the  same  un- 
certainties we  did  as  to  all  pubUc  affairs.  The  representation 
the  assembly  is  to  make  has  not  as  yet  appeared.  After  we  shall 
have  seen  it  we  shall  be  able  to  judge  better  of  the  affairs  in  this 
province.  I  left  the  Gompany  I  was  with  when  you  went  be- 
tween four  &  five  in  the  afternoon  &  by  that  means  came  off 
well.  The  Governor  kept  his  promise  in  not  stopping  me  or 
desiring  me  to  stay."  "The  Assembly  have  made  a  Represen- 
tation which  you  will  see  in  Print,"  he  announced  a  few  days 
later.  "I  hope  the  generaUty  of  people  will  be  better  pleased 
with  his  answer  than  with  their  Representation."  And  again 
he  wrote  on  November  9:    "But  you  will  perhaps  hear  some 


154  Cadwallader  C olden 

things  as  to  publick  affairs.  A  Base  Lye  printed  of  me  in  the 
votes.  But  be  no  way  concern'd.  All  this  will  turn  out  to  my 
advantage  &  I  hope  at  last  to  the  Benefite  of  my  family.  My 
Enemies  will  do  more  for  me  than  my  friends  could  without 
them  &  my  enemies  ought  to  make  me  amends  for  I  have  given 
no  Provocation  to  any  man.  The  only  thing  that  troubles  me 
is  that  I  am  affray'd  I  must  stay  in  this  place  till  the  time  the 
Ships  go  for  England.  The  Govr  has  not  spoke  to  me  on  this 
head  but  I  suspect  it  must  be  .  .  ." 

How  his  enemies  were  to  assist  him  may  be  seen  from  the 
following:  "It  is  impossible  to  act  in  the  Station  I  am  in  with- 
out meeting  with  ill-natur'd  returns  for  actions  which  perhaps 
are  most  deserving.  I  now  can  assure  you  that  the  mahce 
shown  at  this  time  is  so  far  from  being  hurtful  that  thereby  they 
give  an  opportunity  to  lay  open  the  good  Services  done  which 
otherwise  might  have  been  thought  vain  and  indecent."  And 
Major  Rutherford,  with  all  his  common  sense,  thoroughly  agreed 
with  him.  "We  are  now  quiet  in  Winter  Quarters,"  he  wrote 
from  Albany,  "  &  nothing  stirring  worth  writing  about  but 
what  you'l  hear  particularly  from  Coll'  Johnston  &  Capt. 
Tirrell.  All  Indian  storys  from  the  One  &  Our  March  &c 
from  the  other.  Shall  we  never  hear  more  from  England  I 
am  more  and  more  surprized  every  day  and  am  affraid  now 
these  New  York  Ships  will  be  gone  before  the  Letters  arrive 
that  were  sent  by  the  Fleet  which  will  be  a  great  baulk  to  me, 
as  there  will  be  no  opportunity  after  that  to  answer  any  letters 
for  some  time.  Pray  write  me  your  tho'ts  about  expedition 
affairs  now.  I  reckon  you'l  be  able  to  learn  a  good  deal  when 
Admiral  Warren  arrives.  I  was  much  surprised  after  so  great 
expectations  raised  about  it  to  see  the  Representation  from  the 
Assembly  so  very  poor  a  performance,  silly,  trifling,  &  no  Sort 
of  Spirit  in  it.  The  Governour's  speech  I  was  perfectly  pleased 
with  which  is  saying  all  I  can ;  only  I  wish  this  Representation 
may  have  such  an  Answer  as  it  deserves.  ..." 


A  Colonial  Politician 


155 


Such  being  his  sentiments  and  those  of  many  of  his  friends, 
Colden  would  have  been  astonished  had  any  one  told  him  that 
he  had  really  been  assisting  Delancey.  Yet  this  was  probably 
true.  It  was  said  that  at  the  time  of  CUnton's  arrival  Delancey 
had  promised  to  help  Warren  to  the  chief  magistracy.  Then 
Warren  had  got  something  better,  and  had  promised  in  turn  to 
help  Delancey  get  the  lieutenant-governorship,  at  least,  for 
himself.  This  having  been  obtained,  CUnton  was  to  be  dis- 
credited at  home  and  driven  to  resign.  But  this  plan,  which 
was  of  gradual  growth,  was  not  easy  of  accompHshment.  Clin- 
ton had  many  strong  friends  in  England,  and  the  very  simpHcity 
of  his  character  made  him  a  bad  opponent.  Scarcely  had 
Delancey  discovered  this,  however,  when  CHnton  made  his 
opening  speech  in  Colden 's  easily  recognized  style,  and  the 
solution  of  the  problem  at  once  became  easier.  Colden  should 
be  led  on  to  make  both  the  governor  and  himself  ridiculous, 
while  at  the  same  time  Colden  should  be  blamed  for  everything 
that  went  wrong,  and  the  governor  commiserated  on  his  prime 
minister.  This,  indeed,  would  be  kilHng  two  birds  instead  of 
one,  for  Colden  was  quite  right  in  thinking  himself  the  object 
of  considerable  jealousy.  After  all,  he  was  the  governor's  right- 
hand  man  and  his  legal  successor,  and  it  was  but  likely  that  he 
was  using  his  postion  to  petition  the  ministry  for  his  advance- 
ment. 

But  the  game  with  the  assembly  was  over  for  the  year,  for  win- 
ter was  at  hand.  There  remained  the  council.  Colden's  con- 
duct in  that  body  since  his  return  had  been  irreproachable.  He 
had  never  lost  his  temper ;  he  had  never  forgotten  his  duty ;  he 
had  kept  the  governor's  secrets  even  on  cross-examination,  with 
exasperating  completeness.  Such  rampant  virtue  was  intoler- 
able and  on  the  4th  of  December  the  crisis  came.^  Some  time 
before  there  had  been  published  an  account  of  the  treaty  with 
»  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  327-340. 


1^6  Cadwallader  C olden 

the  Indians,  and  on  this  particular  morning  Colden  had  no 
sooner  entered  the  council  room  than  the  chief  justice  pro- 
duced a  copy,  and  moved  that  the  prints  be  sent  for,  and  that 
he  be  asked  to  tell  who  had  arranged  for  its  pubUcation.  Mur- 
ray seconding  the  motion,  Delancey  turned  to  Colden  as  if  by 
an  after-thought,  and  asked  him  had  it  been  he.  Colden  looked 
round  the  room.  He  saw  that  the  full  council  was  present,  an 
unusual  event;  he  observed  a  general  air  of  expectation  and 
readiness ;  and  he  felt,  even  more  than  he  saw,  that  something 
was  in  the  wind.  Then,  his  momentary  hesitation  over,  he 
said  that  he  had  given  the  paper  with  the  governor's  approval. 
Delancey  asked  if  he  had  ordered  it  printed.  Colden  rather 
inconsequently  repeated  that  he  had  given  the  printer  the  copy. 
Delancey  repeated  his  question,  and  added  that,  if  he  did  not 
answer,  the  printer  would  be  brought.  Colden,  seeing  there 
was  no  way  out,  admitted  that  he  had  given  directions  to  print 
it,  and  later  even  acknowledged  its  authorship.  The  para- 
graph in  question  read  in  substance  as  follows :  "  His  Excel- 
lency having  received  his  Majesty's  commands  to  engage  the 
Indian  nations  in  the  expedition  against  Canada,  and  being 
sensible  of  the  difficulties  that  probably  might  arise  .  .  .  was 
desirous  of  having  had  the  assistance  of  as  many  of  the  members 
of  his  Majesty's  council  as  possible  .  .  .  but  all  declined  to  go 
.  .  .  except  Mr.  Colden  and  Mr.  Livingston,  .  .  .  with  Captain 
Rutherford  .  .  .  then  at  his  post  in  Albany."  All  this  was  true, 
yet  when  Colden  said  that  he  had  actually  written  the  paragraph, 
Horsmanden  moved,  in  a  set  speech,  that  it  be  censured  as  an 
"  invidious,  malicious,  and  false  representation  of  facts."  Colden 
objected  that  a  refusal  to  attend  the  conference  might  be  as 
excusable  as  an  acceptance,  and  the  fact  remained.  Horsman- 
den hotly  exclaimed  that  this  was  sophistry,  and  was  proceed- 
ing to  debate  the  whole  question  when  Colden  reminded  them 
all  that  he  was  sitting  as  chairman  of  a  legislative  body,  and  that 


A  Colonial  Politician  157 

they  had  better  show  him  decent  respect  and  discuss  the  matter 
some  other  time  as  privy  councillors.  Delancey,  however, 
muttered  something  about  the  power  of  the  Lords  over  the  privy 
councillors  and  the  Commons,  and,  ignoring  Horsmanden's 
motion,  moved  that  the  paragraph  contained  a  misrepresenta- 
tion of  facts,  and  an  invidious  reflection  on  members  of  the 
council.  The  question  was  carried,  the  proceedings  were  or- 
dered printed,  and  the  meeting  adjourned. 

Four  days  later  a  detailed  account  of  the  debate  appeared 
in  the  New  York  Post-hoy,  and  the  same  week  Colden  left  for 
Coldengham.  The  same  week,  moreover,  a  description  of  the 
situation  was  started  on  its  way  to  Newcastle,  with  a  prayer 
for  Horsmanden's  dismissal  from  the  council,  Alexander's 
restoration  to  the  same,  PhiHp  Livingston's  removal  as  Indian 
commissioner,  and  Colden 's  promotion  to  the  lieutenant- 
governorship  as  the  fitting  reward  of  his  zeal  and  loyalty. 
Whether  or  not  the  council  surmised  that  he  would  resort  to 
such  a  course,  Colden  was  scarcely  gone  when  certain  of  its 
members  presented  the  governor  with  a  document  recounting 
the  misdemeanours  of  his  chosen  adviser,  and  solemnly  warning 
him  of  his  probable  aim.  It  was  he  who  had  refused  to  go  to 
Albany,  while  they  had  merely  desired  to  be  excused  from  going ; 
it  was  he  who,  having  been  prevailed  upon  to  go,  had  persuaded 
the  governor  to  keep  the  proceedings  of  the  council  at  that  place 
a  secret,  and  had  refused  to  tell  the  governor's  orders  to  Roberts ; 
it  was  he  who  had  maintained  that  the  council  of  three  at  Albany 
was  the  council  itself,  and  not  a  committee  thereof;  it  was  he 
who  had  promised  to  submit  certain  papers  to  the  council  and 
then  withheld  them;  it  was  he  who  had  advised  the  unusual 
method  of  delivering  the  speech  at  the  opening  of  the  assembly ; 
it  was  he  who  had  advised  the  speech  itself ;  it  was  he  who  had 
"told  the  world  in  print,  that  he  was  the  next  person  to  his 
Excellency  in  the  administration,"  thus  furnishing  a  clue  to  his 


158  Cadwallader  C olden 

policy;  it  was  of  him  there  could  be  told  many  "other  little 
instances  of  vanity  calculated  principally  with  a  view  to  raise 
a  character,"  and  in  general,  it  was  he  who,  since  he  had  ceased 
attending  his  own  domestic  affairs  in  the  country,  had  brought 
about  such  a  change  in  the  relations  between  governor  and 
legislature,^ 

This  representation  was  dated  December  10,  1746,  but  when 
Clinton  wrote  to  Golden  on  the  17th,  he  said  nothing  of  it.  He 
was  writing  to  ask  Golden  to  answer  the  Board  of  Trades' 
annual  catechism  for  him,  and  having  despatched  his  business, 
concluded  as  follows:  *'I  have  advices  from  Govr  Shirley  that 
the  New  England  troops  are  all  marching  towards  the  frontiers 
of  this  Province  for  the  Reduction  of  Grown  Point  unless  the 
Small  pox  prevents  which  I  have  acquainted  Govr  Shirly  still 
prevails  among  us  .  .  ."  But  if  Glinton  did  not  consider  the 
assembly's  latest  performance  of  supreme  importance,  there 
were  others  who  did.  "As  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  representa- 
tion," wrote  Archibald  Kennedy,  on  December  22nd,  "which 
was  not  till  after  they  had  been  with  the  Govr,  I  desired  Mr. 
Gatherwood  that  our  friend  might  have  the  perusal  of  it,  who 
tho't  the  best  way  would  be  for  the  Govr.  at  present  to  take  no 
notice  of  it,  either  to  them  or  at  home,  at  least  till  he  had  your 
observations  upon  it,  which  it  is  possible  may  still  reach  Mr. 
Gatherwood,  Waddel  being  at  a  loss  for  hands.  He  thinks  it 
one  of  their  best  performances  designed  Ghiefly  to  prevent  the 
consequences  of  His  Excelly's  resentment  at  home.  We  have 
had  but  one  Gouncil  since  you  left  us  upon  an  express  from 
Shirly.  .  .  .  This  thing  is  not  to  be  printed,  where  it  was 
hatched  you  may  guess,  but  it  was  licked  into  shape  at  the 
Gart  and  horse  where  I  hear  they  had  many  meetings." 

Owing  possibly  to  nothing  more  avoidable  than  the  severe 
weather  of  that  winter.  Golden  himself  did  not  receive  the  rep- 

'  First  Collection  of  Public  Papers  (Colden  Correspondence),  1727-1763. 


A  Colonial  Politician  159 

resentation  from  Clinton  until  the  15th  of  January,  1747, 
though  the  despatch  was  dated  many  weeks  earlier.  But  he 
lost  no  time  in  preparing  his  defence.  "I  have  been  so  much 
hurried  in  drawing  an  answer  to  the  representation  so  as  that 
it  may  reach  his  Excellency  before  Stratford's  snow  goes,"  he 
wrote  to  Kennedy  on  the  i8th,  "and  to  make  fair  copies  that  I 
am  affray 'd  of  some  omissions  or  inaccuracies  as  well  as  from 
the  warmth  it  may  be  supposed  that  performance  must  give  me 
&  therefor  I  beg  of  you  to  wait  immediately  on  his  Excelly  and 
tell  him  that  I  desire  you  may  have  the  perusal  of  it  and  to  show 
it  to  our  friend.  After  which  I  submit  to  his  Excellency  and 
your  opinions  what  use  is  to  be  made  of  it.  I  am  persuaded 
they  will  send  it  the  Representation  home  from  themselves  with 
perhaps  something  more  than  they  now  discover  and  therefor 
I  think  we  ought  to  be  as  much  as  possible  upon  our  Guard, 
for  I  am  far  from  thinking  their  view  is  only  defensive.  ..." 
This  reply  to  the  attack  of  his  fellows,  addressed  as  theirs 
had  been,  to  the  governor,  contained  at  least  three  statements 
open  to  criticism.  In  the  first  place,  Colden  says  that  he  was 
not  in  the  council,  but  on  a  visit  to  his  daughter,  when  the  Al- 
bany delegation  was  discussed,  and  that  his  objections  to  going 
were  made  afterward  in  a  private  conversation.  In  view  of  his 
own  letter  this  is  a  curious  lapse  of  memory,  and  one  hard  to 
understand,  when  his  presence  was  so  easily  susceptible  of 
proof.  In  the  second  place,  when  explaining  his  secrecy  in 
regard  to  CHnton's  orders  to  Roberts,  he  said  he  thought  it 
inexpedient  to  confide  mihtary  details  to  a  non-military  body 
one  or  two  hundred  miles  from  the  army.  Then  remembering 
that  the  body  who  had  passed  on  all  these  details  was  by  many 
considered  but  a  committee  of  this  same  council,  and  that  he 
himself  was  accused  of  calhng  it  the  council  itself,  he  added 
that  he  had  not  been  questioned  as  chairman,  and  that  he  would 
not  have  considered  the  questions  pertinent  anyway,  as  the 


i6o  Cadwallader  C olden 

governor  might  very  possibly  tell  him,  the  second  in  command, 
many  things  he  would  wish  no  other  to  know.  Thirdly,  he  re- 
minded Clinton  that  he  had  not  approved  his  plans,  only  ad- 
vising what  he  desired,  and  that  Clinton  himself  had  lately 
seemed  conscious  that  his  troubles  sprang  from  the  first  advice 
he  had  received.  With  these  exceptions,  he  answered  his 
detractors  well,  with  dignity,  and  with  logic,  capping  his  argu- 
ment by  an  inquiry  into  the  vanity  they  had  descried  in  his 
telhng  "the  world  in  print"  of  his  position.  This  was  another 
reference  to  his  account  of  the  Indian  treaty.  As  we  have  seen, 
one  day  when  Clinton  was  ill,  Colden  had  spoken  to  the  Indians 
for  him,  and  both  on  that  occasion  and  in  his  description  thereof 
he  had  called  himself,  "the  next  person  in  the  Administration" 
to  the  governor.  The  council  had  not  permitted  themselves 
to  reflect  on  this  heinous  statement,  but  they  had  suggested 
that  the  governor  consider  whether  it  were  not  to  "this  person's " 
interest  to  "imbroil  your  Excellency's  affairs  and  distract  your 
administration."  But  Colden,  though  confessing  his  share  of 
vanity,  "  a  weed  which  is  observed  to  grow  luxuriously  in  an 
American  soil,"  failed  to  see  how  his  characterization  of  himself 
had  done  anything  but  show  respect  to  the  Indians  and  give 
greater  weight  to  what  he  had  said.  He  had  printed  it  merely 
because  he  was  printing  everything  that  had  happened,  and  it 
was  difficult  to  see  how  his  vanity  could  be  increased  by  telling 
what  every  one  knew  before. 

But,  notwithstanding  his  superior  logic,  Colden  was  alarmed 
and  had  been  so  ever  since,  in  the  previous  November,  he  had 
observed  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  governor's  late  oppo- 
nents "to  make  their  court  to  him  [Clinton]  though  in  a  very 
odd  manner."  He  had  even  written  twice  to  engage  the  good 
offices  of  George  Clarke,  and  had  accompanied  his  formal  reply 
to  the  council  by  this  personal  appeal  to  Clinton:  "I  believe 
your  justice   &  natural  compassion  would  lead  you  to  defend 


A  Colonial  Politician  i6i 

&  support  a  stranger  attacked  in  the  manner  I  am  by  these 
Gentlemen.  Yet  I  presume  on  something  more  in  this  case 
from  your  Excellency's  generosity.  Your  Excellency  knows 
how  far  it  was  from  being  by  my  own  desire  to  medle  more  with 
the  publick  affairs  at  that  time  than  I  had  formerly  don  during 
the  preceding  part  of  your  Excellency's  administration  but  that 
I  entirely  took  the  part  you  was  pleased  to  put  upon  me  at  your 
own  earnest  desire  tho*  at  the  same  time  the  sense  I  had  of  my 
Duty  made  me  more  easily  comply  when  I  saw  your  Excellency 
necessarily  engaged  in  a  multiplicity  of  unexpected  affairs  of 
great  consequence  to  his  Majesty's  service  &  so  far  deprived 
of  the  assistance  of  others  whos  Duty  it  was  to  assist  you  that 
their  endeavours  seem'd  to  be  calculated  to  perplex  you  in  your 
administration  and  to  make  use  of  these  difficulties  to  wrest  the 
reigns  of  Government  out  of  your  hand  and  with  this  in  view 
did  all  in  their  power  to  expose  your  reputation  and  to  lessen 
you  in  the  eyes  of  the  People.  Your  Excellency  may  remember 
that  I  was  apprehensive  enough  of  the  haughty  &  insolent  Spirit 
of  some  men  but  indeed  I  did  not  apprehend  that  Pride  &  re- 
sentment would  have  made  some  of  them  descend  to  attack  in- 
nocence with  the  neglect  or  rather  subversion  of  everything  that 
is  accounted  honourable  among  Gentlemen.  But  upon  Recol- 
lection of  what  has  passed  in  former  times  I  am  convinced  that 
I  had  not  then  that  precaution  which  I  ought  to  have  had.  For 
these  very  same  men  —  I  mean  the  leaders  —  formerly  at- 
tempted the  same  thing  but  the  bad  success  of  their  attempts 
at  that  time  I  was  in  hopes  would  have  deterr'd  them  from  the 
Hke  attempts  for  the  future.  I  am  now  convinced  that  what  is 
in  nature  can  never  be  driven  out  nor  amended.  Your  Excel- 
lency no  doubt  perceives  what  reason  I  have  to  wish  that  I  had 
continued  in  the  innocent  amusements  I  enjoyed  in  my  retire- 
ment. I  had  just  return'd  to  them  when  I  had  them  again  inter- 
rupted by  this  extraordinary  representation.     I  shall  endeavour 


i62  Cadwallader  Colden 

as  soon  as  possible  to  free  my  thoughts  from  this  disagreable 
subject  and  return  to  my  usual  conversation  with  men  whose 
endeavours  all  their  life  was  to  discover  &  establish  the  truth." 

If  Colden 's  defamation  was  long  in  reaching  him,  his  defence 
travelled  fast,  and  Kennedy  wrote  but  four  days  after  the  date 
of  the  final  draught:  *  "I  received  yours  of  the  i8th,  and  did 
as  you  bid  me.  Your  answer  was  thought  a  little  too  warm 
and  that  about  the  Covers  giving  up  too  much  of  his  power 
fitter  for  A  private  advice  than  to  appear  in  pubHck.  However, 
I  was  of  opinion  it  should  goe  to  Mr  Catherwood  but  not  to  goe 
out  of  his  hands  and  only  to  use  such  extracts  as  may  be  thought 
necessary.  You  will  I  believe  have  time  enough  to  soften  things 
and  leave  that  part  out  before  next  ship  by  Stratford.  The 
Governour  is  not  very  well  and  I  believe  has  not  read  it,  the  Ship 
being  to  sail  at  2  o'clock.  We  have  no  manner  of  newes  besides 
that  the  Bostonians  seem  to  press  the  expedition  against  Crown 
Point  which  is  absolutely  impracticable  this  winter.  I  hope 
we  shall  see  the  3d  of  March."  And  on  February  9th  he  had 
this  to  say:  "I  am  glad  we  hitt  upon  the  proper  use  of  your 
answer,  as  the  Governour  never  read  it  being  at  that  time  much 
out  of  order,  and  Hilton  just  upon  goeing.  I  should  think  a 
copy  for  him  to  make  what  use  he  pleased  of  it  (by  Stratford  it 
cannot  goe,  for  he  will  certainly  sail  in  a  day  or  two)  would  not 
be  amiss.  We  have  had  but  one  Council  I  think  since  you  left  us, 
the  subject  at  least  of  our  meetings  has  only  been  about  sending 
off  the  french  prisoners  and  attacking  Crown  point,  which  we 
have  reported,  according  to  our  opinion  impracticable  this 
winter,  at  one  of  those  committees  Mr,  Hn.  made  a  discovery 
of  which  he  was  not  a  little  fond,  vizt.  In  the  minutes  it  was 
inserted  'This  day  His  Excellency  laid  before  the  Council  the 
transactions  at  Albany  read,  and  ordered  to  be  entered  on  the 
minutes'  and  a  few  days  agoe,  after  making  our  report  Mr.  Mr 
*  January  23,  1746/7. 


A  Colonial  Politician  163 

[Moore]  moved  for  a  Commitee  to  enquire  upon  oath  how  that 
minut  came  there,  they  imagine  I  suppose  it  was  either  you  or 
the  Gov"  ordered  it  parturiunt  monies.  —  You  see  the  spirit 
still  subsists,  But  as  you  have  put  your  hand  to  the  plough  give 
me  leave  to  add  two  or  three  more  Latin  words  tu  ne  cede  malis, 
sed  contra  audientio  rito.  I  hope  we  shall  see  you  some  time 
before  the  assembly  sitts.  Mr.  Shirley  it  is  said  is  agoeing  home. 
Mrs.  Murray  very  sick  from  cold  catched  at  an  assembly  where 
Miss  and  Mr  CUnton  mett  with  indifferent  treatment,  upon 
which  account  I  hear  Capt  Scot  is  out  at  Court.  His  affair  with 
Miss  Montgomerie  amuses  the  young  folks  and  further  this 
deponeth  saith  not." 

It  was,  indeed,  very  evident  that,  if  Colden's  friends  had  any- 
thing to  say  about  it,  the  plough  was  not  to  be  left  standing  alone 
just  yet.  "Yours  of  the  loth  inst.  I  was  favoured  with  by  en- 
sign McClaghry,"  wrote  Rutherford  on  January  18,  1747, 
"and  I  assure  you  whatever  you  and  I  may  think  of  Albany 
'twould  surprise  you  how  cheerfully  we  pass  our  time.  CoU^ 
Roberts  is  gone  to  New  York  but  we've  still  Messrs  Wrexall, 
Honeyman,  Calhoun  and  Capt.  Campbel  Commdt  of  the  three 
Maryland  Companys  who  is  a  very  good  Sort  of  man.  I  really 
think  there  has  happened  nothing  at  New  York  to  give  you  the 
least  uneasiness  imaginable,  for  when  A  Man's  Character  is 
unjustly  aspersed,  'tis  the  Slanderer  only  Suffers  in  the  opinion 
of  Every  Man  whose  opinion  is  worth  regarding.  I  have 
letters  of  the  25th  October  from  London  &  which  is  odd  not  a 
word  of  our  Expedition.  We  have  been  amused  likewise  with 
Mr.  Waldo  &  his  forces  comeing  from  New  England  but  not  a 
word  of  them  now,  how  matters  will  turn  out  God  knows  how- 
ever I  wish  you  were  at  New  York  as  soon  as  you  possibly  can  be 
with  any  convenience  to  yourself,  as  theres  often  no  forseeing 
Changes  and  as  you've  put  your  hand  to  the  plouw  you  must 
keep  it  goeing,  besides  'tis  allwayes  dangerous  to  do  business  by 


164  Cadwallader  Colden 

halfs  and  allwayes  safest  to  go  thro'  with  it  with  spirit.  As  to 
my  own  affairs  I  continue  of  the  same  mind  as  we  talked  at 
parting  'tis  certainly  the  best  Scheme.  I  think  His  Excellency 
after  all  that's  past  now  can't  refuse  you  a  favour  tho'  't  will 
be  allwayes  doubtfull  if  you're  not  present  when  't  is  in  his 
power."  And  again :^  "I  am  glad  to  see  by  yours  of  the 
nth  Inst  I  have  now  the  favour  of  that  you  are  returned  to 
New  York.  I  wish  you  had  passed  the  winter  there  for  among 
many  other  things  relating  to  our  Forces  here  think  the  Govern- 
our  very  ill  advised  in  not  allowing  us  to  assist  the  New  England 
troops  against  Crown  Point.  The  winter  proved  extremely 
favourable  for  such  an  attempt  &  the  troops  very  healthy  and 
in  good  Spirits  &  wanting  nothing  but  Indian  shoes  and  stock- 
ings &  some  of  them  waist  coats  which  could  have  been  all  got 
here  in  two  or  three  days  time,  I  'm  in  great  hopes  by  the  first 
sloops  now  to  hear  from  you  the  Contents  of  The  Boston  Packet 
which,  no  doubt,  will  a  Uttle  clear  up  the  darkness  we're  now 
involved  in.  I  don't  write  His  Excellency  for  leave  to  come 
down  as  I  could  not  be  in  New  York  without  being  in  Council, 
and  if  he  inclined  to  have  me  there,  to  be  sure  he  would  let  me 
know  it ;  I  did  not  trouble  him  with  any  letters  this  winter,  there 
being  nothing  worth  while  but  what  It  was  the  duty  of  His 
Lieutenant  Colls,  to  inform  him  of  &  by  what's  past  I  know  well 
he  would  have  more  regard  to  their  accounts  of  things  than 
mine.  Pray  what's  to  be  done  with  the  Pensilvania,  Maryland 
&  Virginia  companys  not  yet  Regimented  ?  Who  do  you  think 
will  be  impowered  to  name  their  Field  officers.  If  Governour 
Clinton  could  be  prevailed  on,  upon  your  Account  to  annex  my 
Company  to  them  I  would  press  hard  for  the  ColP*  commission 
as  I  am  assured  by  Governour  Shirley  &  Governour  Thomas 
that  they'l  doe  me  what  Service  they  can  &  I  think  I  can  depend 
on  their  friendship  if  't  is  either  in  their  power  to  do  or  to  recom- 

'  March  27,  1747. 


A  Colonial  Politician  165 

mend  ...  if  you  find  anything  can  be  done  in  the  above  or  in 
our  former  project  that  requires  my  being  at  New  York  'tis 
easy  for  you  to  desire  the  Governour  to  send  me  a  Une.  I  don't 
like  this  Scheme  of  the  Bostoners  sending  1200  men  more  to 
AnnapoHs  Royal  especially  as  they  send  Coll!  Twight's  Regi- 
ment with  Colli  Waldo's,  which  regiments  would  have  been 
properest  of  any  they  have  to  assist  us  against  Crown  Point 
I'm  sorry  we  shan't  have  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Lidius  for  A  Guide 
&  to  assist  in  Managing  the  Indians  that  may  go  along  with  us 
in  case  we  should  march,  as  he'l  be  obliged  to  follow  his  Regi- 
ment being  a  Major  and  Capt.  in  Mr.  Waldo's  Regiment,  he 
is  only  sent  back  now  from  Boston  to  assist  Mr.  Johnstown  in 
sending  out  Scalping  partys.   .   .   ." 

Clinton  himself,  moreover,  followed  up  his  reassuring  reply 
to  Colden's  appeal  by  the  following:  "As  the  time  draws  nigh 
for  business  your  friends  woud  be  glad  to  see  you  in  towne 
particularly  myself  &  should  be  glad  you  would  come  as  soon 
as  you  can  conveniently,  standing  much  in  need  of  your  assist- 
ance, I  have  had  several  hints  given  me  how  things  might  go 
easier  if  I  did  so  and  so  but  I  have  rejected  it  with  disdain.  I 
was  always  brought  up  in  the  Principell  of  Honour  and  you  may 
depend  on  it  Sir  I  never  promiss  but  I  keep  my  words." ^ 

"I  am  exceedingly  sorry,"  ^  Colden  replied,  "that  the  season 
at  this  time  renders  it  impracticable  to  travil  either  by  land  or 
Water ;  otherwise  I  should  have  shown  what  regard  I  have  to 
your  Excellency's  commands  by  the  most  speedy  obedience.  All 
the  Brooks  have  been  so  high  that  the  Bridges  in  most  places  are 
carried  away  and  the  hollowness  of  the  Ground  from  the  frost 
makes  travelling  on  horseback  exceedingly  dangerous  till  the 
ground  settles.  The  River  is  not  as  yet  passable  from  the  ice. 
But  both  these  obstructions  I  hope  will  soon  be  removed  &  I 

*  February  20,  1746/7.  '  February  23. 


1 66  Cadwallader  C olden 

expect  it  will  be  as  soon  practicable  to  go  by  water  as  by  land  so 
that  I  hope  in  ten  day's  or  a  fortnight's  time  of  doing  my  duty 
at  New  York.  I  am  of  opinion  that  it  may  be  advisable  to  pro- 
long the  Assembly  further  for  a  fortnight  because  I  beHeve  busi- 
ness will  go  heavily  till  we  have  some  news  from  England  relat- 
ing to  this  province's  affairs  neither  can  a  sufficient  number  be 
expected  to  meet  at  this  time.  ...  If  Your  Excell^  have  other 
reasons  (than  provisions  for  the  new  levies)  for  meeting  them 
early  I  can  give  no  opinion  but  that  I  doubt  not  of  your  Excelly's 
forming  a  proper  judgment  if  you  place  no  confidence  where  you 
have  all  the  reason  in  the  world  not  to  do  it.  They  have  a  very 
erroneous  opinion  of  your  Excellency's  understanding  who  think 
they  can  persuade  you  to  trust  them  who  have  abused  your  con- 
fidence in  the  most  gross  manner  and  after  the  strongest  obliga- 
tions that  could  be  laid  on  men  and  even  to  condescend  to  such 
an  abject  confidence  in  those  people  as  to  put  it  out  of  your  power 
afterwards  to  receive  in  any  case  assistance  from  any  other 
person.  The  attempt  to  persuade  your  Excellency  to  this  can 
only  proceed  from  the  weakness  of  their  Judgment  accompanied 
with  an  excessive  vanity  in  their  opinion  of  themselves." 

IV 

CoLDEN  arrived  in  town  during  the  second  week  of  March, 
and  in  the  third  week  the  assembly  met.  The  governor's 
speech  was  simple  and  his  demands  few.  He  wanted  presents 
for  the  western  Indians,  he  wanted  hearty  concurrence  in  the 
Crown  Point  expedition,  with  all  that  that  impHed;  and  in  a 
supplementary  message  he  asked  for  one  hundred  scouts  for 
the  northern  frontiers.  But  in  the  face  of  the  information,  sug- 
gestions, advice  which  the  council  had  lavished,  Golden  had  been 
recalled  and  was  once  more  to  be  allowed  to  direct  the  adminis- 
tration.    Clinton   must   be  made  to  suffer  for  his   temerity. 


A  Colonial  Politician  167 

Further  supplies  for  the  volunteers,  still  dawdling  about  Albany, 
were  voted,  and  the  governor  got  his  scouts  and  £1$^  ^or  an 
Indian  treaty ;  but  for  the  first  time  on  record  his  speech  went 
unanswered;  the  "Address"  was  omitted.  This,  Golden  said 
afterward,  was  "like  an  inferior's  refusing  to  return  the  com- 
pHment  of  the  hat."  ^  Yet  his  opponents  were  only  getting  their 
hands  in.  Their  next  achievement  was  a  petition,  in  which,  out 
of  deference  for  their  up-country  brothers,  they  called  on  Clinton, 
to  use  some  of  the  volunteers  as  a  corps  of  rangers  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  wretched  inhabitants  of  the  county  of  Albany. 
Then,  with  some  unpleasant  remarks  on  the  previous  disposition 
of  the  new  levies,  they  asked  a  recess. 

This  was  too  much,  and  Golden  let  himself  go  in  a  general 
vindication  of  the  governor's  conduct.'  At  first,  he  contented 
himself  with  controverting  the  assembly's  statements,  but  in 
conclusion  he  traced  the  prevailing  obstructive  spirit  back  to  the 
time  when  the  father  of  the  chief- justice  had  blocked  Burnet's 
beneficial  schemes;  he  showed  how  the  same  greed  had  since 
hurt  the  province;  and  in  proof  of  its  present  strength  he  quoted 
a  message  from  the  French  governor  to  the  Iroquois  urging  their 
neutrality  and  promising,  from  his  pity  of  their  Albany  brethren, 
to  turn  his  Indians  "on  their  most  inveterate  enemies  of  New 
England."  An  answer  to  its  request  for  a  recess  was  promised 
when  the  assembly  had  indicated  how  they  were  going  to  care  for 
the  colony.  This,  of  course,  was  in  Clinton's  name,  but  the 
assemblymen  could  scarcely  wait  to  compile  another  manifesto 
in  order  to  denounce  the  man  whom  they  knew  to  be  its  author. 
This  representation,  "brought  into  the  Assembly,  read,  en- 
grossed, and  presented  to  the  Governor  within  the  space  of 
two  hours,"  placed  all  their  infeUcities  to  the  account  of  the 
person  who  was  honoured  by  his  confidence,  a  person  obnoxious 

*  Correspondence,  Remarks  after  May  25,  1747. 
'  Assembly  Journals,  II,   256. 


i68  Cadwallader  Colden 

to  the  house.  It  told,  besides,  of  all  the  assembly  had  given 
Clinton  and  of  the  bad  use  which  he  had  made  of  it ;  and  it  de- 
clared a  complete  lack  of  faith  in  the  Massachusetts  plan,  and 
avowed  the  decision  of  its  authors  to  wait  for  experienced 
leaders  from  England. 

But  Clinton  had  had  enough  for  a  while,  and  threatening  to 
tell  the  king  of  their  conduct  he  granted  a  second  request  for 
adjournment.  The  adjournment,  however,  was  but  brief. 
About  a  month  before,  that  is,  on  the  29th  of  April,  1747,  word 
had  arrived  that  the  garrison  of  Fort  CUnton  was  hkely  to  desert 
in  a  body  for  want  of  pay ;  and  this  had  been  followed  on  the 
30th  by  a  despatch  saying  that  one  hundred  and  twenty  men 
had  already  gone.^  The  volunteers,  indeed,  with  the  exception 
of  their  ;^9  enlistment  bounty,  had  not  had  a  penny  since  they 
entered  the  service  the  preceding  summer.  Clinton  had  as 
yet  shown  no  anxiety  to  draw  those  bills  of  exchange  which 
later  were  said  to  have  made  his  fortune,  and  insisted  on  wait- 
ing for  directions  from  England.  Unfortunately,  as  he  waited, 
the  good  people  of  Albany  caught  the  ears  of  the  soldiers,  and 
some  one  had  said  that  he  who  would  take  Canada  must  first 
take  that  snug  Dutch  town.  But  now  the  council  took  up  the 
matter.  They  advised  the  governor  to  draw  on  the  English 
government  for  full  pay  for  the  officers,  for  40s.  down  for  each 
private  and  for  2s.  a  month  apiece  until  they  received  their  en- 
tire due.^  Time  was  necessary,  however,  to  haggle  with  the  mer- 
chants about  the  rate  of  exchange,  and  meanwhile  things  grew 
worse.  The  men  were  all  mutinous.  It  was  impossible  to  get  a 
reenforcement  for  Saratoga.  Albany  was  full  of  rumours.  It  was 
said  the  soldiers  were  not  under  martial  law  while  unpaid,  and 
that  the  governor  had  no  orders  to  pay  them ;  it  was  said  again 

'  For  an  account  of  the  mutiny,  see  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  357-359,  363-364, 
and  375-377- 

'  Proceedings  of  the  Executive  Council,  April  30,  1747. 


A  Colonial  Politician  169 

that  he  had  such  orders  and  was  disregarding  them.  The  Penn- 
sylvania troops,  Dutch  themselves,  were  told  that  if  they  took 
half  pay,  Clinton  could  make  them  soldiers  for  life ;  the  Jersey  men 
said  that  if  Clinton  paid  them  at  all,  they  would  be  under  him, 
and  refused  to  take  anything  whatever  from  him.  Moreover, 
when  the  colonel  of  these  Jersey  troops  heard  this,  he  promised 
them  full  pay  and  gave  it  despite  the  remonstrances  of  Clinton 
and  of  President  Hamilton,  his  immediate  superior.  This  made 
every  soldier  in  the  place  desert,  or  threaten  to,  if  they  were  not 
paid  in  full  at  once,  while  a  council  of  field  officers  advised  Clin- 
ton to  yield,  advice  which  was  seconded  by  his  own  council. 
But  with  the  fatal  attraction  for  the  wrong  course,  which  had 
marked  his  administration,  he  refused  to  draw  longer  at  his  own 
risk  and  called  the  assembly.  But  the  assembly  also  refused 
either  to  advance  a  penny  or  to  stand  security  for  the  governor's 
bills,  and  added  that  his  attitude  showed  a  lamentable  distrust  of 
the  king,  whose  intention  to  pay  for  the  expedition  was  evident. 
Thus,  doing  perforce  what  he  might  have  done  with  grace, 
Clinton  wrote  to  Roberts  that  he  would  pay  in  full,  and  on  the 
1 8th  of  June,  he  himself  started  for  Albany. 

This  time  Colden  was  left  behind.  The  situation  of  his 
estate  and  the  more  subtle  activity  of  his  enemies  had  made  it 
an  anxious  spring  for  him,  and  he  was  glad  of  a  slight  respite : 
"I  am  at  this  time  so  deeply  engaged  in  publick  affairs  by  the 
news  of  a  Mutiny  among  the  Forces  at  Albany,"  he  had  written 
Mrs.  Colden  on  May  2d,  "that  I  have  scarce  a  moment  to  my- 
self. The  Governor  had  resolved  yesterday  before  we  were 
inform'd  of  the  heighth  this  Mutiny  is  got  to  to  appoint  one  of 
my  sons  Muster  Master.  I  design  it  for  Cadwallader  and  he 
must  be  ready  to  go  to  Albany  as  soon  as  his  commission  & 
orders  come  to  his  hands."  And  again  four  days  later:  "As 
the  Mutiny  continues  and  increases  at  Albany  and  they  threaten 
to  march  home  &  perhaps  some  of  them  are  gon  by  this  time 


170  Cadwallader  C olden 

and  as  you  are  now  on  the  road  they  may  take  I  think  it  advis- 
able and  must  insist  on  your  going  to  your  son  Alexander's  .  .  . 
&  you  can  if  you  think  proper  come  down  with  the  children  to 
this  town.  The  rest  we  must  leave  to  Providence.  ...  I  know 
you  are  not  of  that  timorous  temper  to  take  what  I  write  in  such 
manner  as  to  do  anything  without  an  appearance  of  its  being 
proper.  ..." 

Another  anxiety  was  the  exasperating  silence  of  the  home  gov- 
ernment, which,  bombarded  with  questions  and  petitions  as  it 
had  been,  had  yet  never  vouchsafed  a  line  since  the  letter  direct- 
ing the  expedition.  This  was  a  fine  example  of  the  "wise 
neglect  of  Walpole  and  Newcastle."*  "Not  one  word  of  news 
from  England  yet.  The  last  express  from  Albany  gives  us 
hopes  that  things  will  be  pacified  there,"  wrote  Golden  on  May 
12th.  And  again  a  week  or  so  later:  "It  is  surprising  that  not 
one  word  should  at  this  time  be  heard  from  the  Ministry,  but  as 
this  is  not  in  our  power  to  help  we  must  bear  it  with  patience ; 
but  it  lays  us  under  great  difficulties  how  to  act."  Golden 's 
private  information,  moreover,  was  not  especially  reassuring. 
"The  Governor's  conduct  in  the  Treaty  the  year  before  [1745] 
has  been  represented  here  in  no  favourable  Light,"  Golden's 
London  friend,  Peter  Gollinson,  had  written  in  March.  "But 
now  you  are  thought  fitt  to  be  admitted  in  his  Gouncils  wee  are 
persuaded  if  he  will  submitt  to  your  advice  it  will  give  a  favour- 
able Turn  to  his  Future  administration."  But  he  added:  "In 
yours  of  December  3d  you  hint  the  extraordinary  Trouble  & 
Expense  you  have  been  at  in  attending  the  Governr  and  publick 
Business.  To  be  sure  you  ought  to  be  considered.  If  there  is 
any  vacant  place  in  yr  Governmt  Deserving  yr  or  yr  son's  ac- 
ceptance your  Governor's  Recommending  you  to  the  Duke  of 

•  Lecky's  "  American  Revolution,"  p.  8.  Edmund  Burke  had  already 
called  this  neglect  salutary;  see  Walpole 's  "Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  King 
George  the  Third,"  II,  50. 


A  Colonial  Politician  171 

Newcastle  may  be  of  service;  but  if  you  are  recommended  to 
the  Duke  for  Him  to  do  something  for  you,  without  telling  Him 
and  yr  Frds  Here,  what  it  is  no  good.  Such  recommendation 
is  only  a  thing  of  course  and  will  all  come  to  nothing.  If  your 
Governor  is  not  a  Courtier  he  is  a  Kin  to  those  that  are  and  Ex- 
pectation of  Something  but  nobody  knows  what  is  the  extraordi- 
nary recompense  they  bestow  on  those  that  Serve  them.  I 
shall  not  be  awanting  when  you  have  Really  Something  to  ask 
that  is  vacant  that  will  be  of  service  to  you  and  your  Family 
in  giveing  you  all  mine  and  my  Frds  Interest." 

At  home,  as  we  know,  the  assembly  were  still  troubling. 
"There  is  another  malicious  paper  printing  from  the  Assembly," 
Golden  informed  his  wife  toward  the  end  of  May,  "but  don't 
trouble  yourself  about  it.  It  can  hurt  neither  the  Govr  nor  me 
with  any  considerate  person  but  evidently  discovers  what  sort  of 
men  the  Authors  of  it  are  and  will  contribute  to  bring  all  our 
Disputes  to  a  more  speedy  conclusion.  At  the  same  time  it 
makes  me  more  desirous  to  be  here  when  the  News  comes  from 
England  which  we  have  all  the  reason  in  the  world  to  expect 
cannot  be  long.  .  .  ."  "I'm  heartily  glad  I've  now  found  out 
A  certain  New  Acquaintance's  designs,"  wrote  Rutherford  about 
the  same  time,  "while  I  looked  on  him  as  my  friend  and  As  I'm 
but  too  apt  to  trust  I  own  he  stumbled  me  a  little,  tho'  I  never 
could  believe  half  his  insinuations  of  your  Character,  your  ex- 
pressions of  me  &  of  your  designs  of  keeping  me  &  others  at  a 
distance  from  the  Govemour  in  order  to  have  his  whole  ear.  I 
hope  and  expect  you'l  now  have  as  little  regard  to  what  he  says 
on  one  side  as  I  have  on  the  other,  for  its  plain  his  only  design 
has  been  to  create  a  difference,  instead  of  which  I  dare  say 
't  will  have  the  quite  contrary  effect.  ...  I  wrote  you  in  my  last 
that  discipline  was  at  least  as  much  wanted,  but  now  unless  we 
get  Commanding  Officers  from  home  tis  in  vain  to  think  of  it, 
but  while  I  write  this  perhaps  the  affair's  all  over.  .  .  ." 


172  Cadwallader  C olden 

It  was  shortly  before  this  that  the  administration  had  been 
obliged  to  recall  the  prorogued  assembly.  "There  is  something 
unlucky  in  our  public  affairs  to  prevent  my  returning  home," 
Golden  sadly  announced/  "The  Govr  is  not  well  in  his  health 
&  the  troops  are  again  mutinying  at  Albany  even  so  far  as  to 
threaten  to  plunder  the  Country  if  they  have  not  their  whole 
pay.  Till  these  things  are  settled  it  is  so  far  from  being  proper 
for  me  to  return  that  I  am  resolv'd  if  I  do  not  see  that  things 
are  hke  to  be  put  into  a  better  state  at  Albany  to  send  for  you 
&  the  children  to  this  place.  As  to  this,  I  hope  to  be  deter- 
min'd  in  two  or  3  days  at  furthest  either  by  the  Resolutions  the 
Assembly  should  take  or  by  news  from  England  for  we  hear 
that  a  Packet  lay  ready  at  Porthsmouth  for  Boston  &  waited 
only  for  the  Despatches  to  be  sent  from  Court.  The  Assembly's 
last  representation  does  them  no  service  in  this  place  &  people 
are  generally  dissatisfied  with  it  &  I  believe  the  Assembly  will 
see  that  the  people  are  so  before  it  be  long.  The  mutiny  con- 
tinuing at  Albany  has  occasioned  the  Assembly  to  meet  again 
upon  Business."  "I  can  assure  you  my  Dear  nothing  gives 
me  any  kind  of  uneasiness  but  my  concern  for  you,"  he  wrote 
the  next  day:  adding,  "all  the  little  malice  which  has  appeared 
does  not  in  the  least  affect  me.  I  am  as  cheerful  as  ever  as  I 
know  that  events  are  not  in  my  power  and  I  hope  to  submit  to 
them  with  a  cheerful  mind.  This  day  a  letter  came  from  Mr. 
Harison  at  Philad'*  that  the  Capt  of  a  privater  who  was  sent 
out  to  cruise  on  the  coast  writes  that  he  had  Spoke  with  a  Ship 
boun  on  to  Virginia  who  said  he  had  parted  with  Admiral 
Warren  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  with  six  men  of  war  and 
40  transports." 

"I  have  at  last  resolv'd,"  he  said  in  a  letter  written  nearly 
two  weeks  later,  "to  wait  the  return  of  an  express  which 
set  out  yesterday  for  Albany  and  is  to  return  with  all  speed 

•  June  2,  1747. 


A  Colonial  Politician  173 

after  having  made  the  Govr*s  resolution  known  of  paying 
the  whole  on  certain  conditions  which  if  comply 'd  with  must 
put  an  end  to  all  the  disorders  there  and  quiet  the  country  for 
the  future.  And  you  must  keep  yourself  and  the  children  in 
readiness  to  come  away  for  this  place  in  case  you  have  any  ac- 
count of  the  mutineers  marching  downwards  from  Albany  for 
they  have  openly  threatened  to  take  their  pay  in  plunder  wher- 
ever they  go  and  if  once  they  begin  such  kind  of  work  none  can 
tell  what  other  outrages  they  may  be  guilty  of.  The  only  doubt 
which  now  remains  is  whether  they  will  entirely  comply  with 
the  conditions  proposed.  If  they  do  not  the  Governor  cannot 
justify  his  paying  them  anything  and  certainly  will  not  what- 
ever be  the  consequence.  I  send  Cad  his  commission  and  he 
must  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  go  up  about  a  week  hence  at 
which  time  he  will  receive  his  instructions  &  I  expect  to  bring 
them  myself  and  give  him  what  further  private  advice  may  be 
necessary.  The  Govr  has  received  an  address  from  the  Cor- 
poration of  New  York  City  with  compliments  to  him  on  his 
Administration  an  account  of  which  I  expect  will  be  in  the  news- 
papers &  has  made  a  good  deal  of  talk  in  the  Town  being  so 
very  different  from  what  comes  from  the  Assembly.  What  is 
remarkable  in  this  address  is  that  it  comes  from  the  Magistrates 
chosen  by  the  People  annually  and  the  Mayor  who  is  appointed 
by  the  Govr  went  out  of  town  and  did  not  attend  and  they  in 
the  opposition  made  the  Deputy  Mayor  drunk  so  that  he  could 
not  attend  the  common  Council  at  the  time  they  had  agreed  to 
deliver  their  address.  .  .  ." 

The  report  of  the  express  was  such  that,  as  has  been  said, 
the  governor  set  out  almost  at  once  for  Albany,  Colden  having 
left  for  home  twenty-four  hours  previously.  His  vacation,  how- 
ever, was  to  be  short.  In  less  than  three  weeks  the  following 
letter  from  CUnton  called  him  back  to  the  fight:  "I  have  had 
the  devil  &  all  to  pay  here  with  the  new  Levyes  &  Indians," 


174  Cadwallader  Colden 

he  wrote  from  Fort  Frederick  on  July  7,  1747.  "As  to  ye 
first  it  was  but  last  Monday  that  I  could  get  the  Captains  into 
any  manner  of  agreement  Severall  insisting  that  I  had  received 
orders  from  home  to  pay  them,  that  ye  first  two  months  Musters 
was  their  due  according  for  ye  rules  of  ye  Army  &  abundance 
more,  Honeyman  at  the  head,  they  are  at  last  convinced  &  are 
preparing  their  Muster  Rolls  for  payment,  but  when  I  sett  out 
is  uncertain,  but  intend  as  soon  as  possible  I  can  in  order  to 
meet  ye  Assembly  in  order  [to]  engage  our  neighbours  to  drive 
ye  French  back,"  he  continued,  "  &  if  possible  to  take  or  demol- 
ish Crown  Point." 

"Coll.  Johnson  came  down  last  Thursday  &  with  him  Lucas, 
Moses  &  about  20  more  Indians,  who  spoke  to  me  ye  next  day 
cheafly  insisting  to  know  ye  meaning  why  the  Army  is  not  ar- 
rived as  I  assured  them  last  meeting,  that  I  have  drawn  them 
into  an  Indian  War  &  they  did  not  see  any  Force  I  have  to  save 
them  from  being  destroyed  by  their  inveterate  Enemies  ye 
French  &  their  Indians  &  a  great  deal  more,  which  I  was  to 
answer  on  Saturday,  but  hearing  Hendrick  was  coming  down 
I  deferred  it  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say  Sz.  answer  them  at  once, 
finding  Henrick  didn't  come  I  sent  an  order  to  Captn  Mackin- 
tosh to  send  a  Guard  with  him  &  on  Monday  in  ye  afternoon 
he  came  with  about  20  more,  and  yesterday  morning  I  had 
about  30  of  them  in  my  Uttle  parlour  just  over  ye  Kitchen  &  a 
Monstrous  hot  day,  they  came  about  ^  past  nine  &  did  not 
leave  me  till  nigh  one.  Coll.  Johnson  told  me  over  night  that 
Hendrick  proposed  to  be  very  loud  &  speak  very  plainly  to  me, 
as  if  I  had  deceived  them,  upon  Johnson  &  Stevens  telHng  him 
it  would  not  be  proper  before  the  others,  he  promised  not,  but 
to  tell  me  my  own  in  privatt,  but  after  I  deUvered  my  answer, 
notwithstanding  his  promise  he  began  and  was  exceedingly 
angry  indeed  &  very  impertinent  &  I  was  hardly  able  to  bear 
him,  he  call'd  upon  ye  Mohawks    &  told  them  I  had  drawn 


A  Colonial  Politician  175 

them  and  him  into  ye  War  and  that  [when]  he  was  come  down 
to  See  ye  Army  instead  of  seeing,  He  found  they  were  betrayed, 
that  ye  French  no  sooner  proposed  anything  but  they  Sat  about 
it,  &  then  hit  me  in  ye  Truth  of  Sarahtoga  &  severall  other 
things  and  our  not  making  any  head  against  this  army,  as  for 
his  part  he  would  leave  his  Castle  &  take  all  his  people  with 
him,  &  so  we  parted  in  a  sort  of  pett,  I  told  him  I  was  come 
up  to  settle  the  Army  &  to  give  him  all  ye  Assistance  I  could  & 
would  have  assistance  from  my  Neighbours  if  I  found  there 
was  occasion  for  it,  but  all  did  not  signifie  About  six  A  Clock 
in  ye  evening  Aeron  Stevens  came  up  to  me  to  tell  me  Henrick 
wanted  to  speak  with  me  in  privitt.  I  told  him  as  he  had  said 
in  pubHck  what  he  was  to  say  to  me  in  privitt  I  would  have 
nothing  to  say  to  him  but  at  last  I  thought  it  as  well  to  hear 
what  he  had  to  say  but  ye  scene  was  greatly  changed  for  he  was 
all  good  &  we  parted  the  best  friends  we  ever  was,  and  did 
everything  but  hug  &  kiss  &  he  was  quite  sober  as  do  them 
justice  every  one  was,  I  was  forced  to  fill  ye  Dog's  pockett. 
They  all  leave  now  God  be  praised  this  afternoon  &  then  I 
shall  gett  to  my  other  affaires.  I  have  given  orders  to  Johnson 
to  go  directly  to  work  to  build  a  Fort  at  Canajoharie  &  this  I 
ordered  before  Henrick  asked  it.  ..."  "I  have  just  received  an 
Account  that  Connecticut  Government  has  marched  400  men 
to  their  frontiers,"  he  added  in  a  postscript,  "  &  New  Hamp- 
shire 700  &  Mr  Shirley  has  ordered  his  Troops  to  assist  us  in 
case  the  Stroke  should  come  this  way,  expecting  ye  same  in  re- 
turn &  particularly  to  assist  ye  Mohawks  with  Men  &  build 
Forts  for  them  at  ye  same  time  is  endeavouring  to  fling  all  this 
upon  me,  something  must  be  done  soon  &  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  me  to  meet  ye  Assembly  to  recommend  tho'  I  Don't 
expect  much,  tho  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  them  to  do  some- 
thing now  or  never,  for  we  durst  not  pretend  to  send  out  any 
party  unless  a  very  strong  one  and  we  have  not  been  able  to  get 


176  Cadwallader  C olden 

any  intelligence  from  Sarahtoga  since  these  people  went  &  most 
people  are  of  an  opinion  that  they  are  building  a  Magazine  for 
Stores  &  Provisions  for  their  sculking  partys  at  carrying  place. 
That  what  I  have  to  say  must  require  your  assistance  &  I  de- 
sire you  will  be  at  your  son's  house  by  the  i6th  inst,*  when  I 
shall  call  to  take  you  in,  it  is  unavoidable,  I  therefore  desire 
you  will  not  fail.  ..." 


So  it  happened  that  together  Clinton  and  Golden  journeyed 
back  to  the  capital,  where  once  more  they  were  to  oppose  all 
that  was  influential  in  its  poHtical  life,  and  of  the  two  Golden 
was  to  be,  as,  indeed,  he  had  been  for  more  than  a  year,  the  re- 
sponsible member  of  the  administration.  His  contemporaries, 
friends  and  enemies  alike,  were  agreed  that  he  was  the  source 
of  executive  activity,  and  he  himself  could  but  know  that  he 
was  held  accountable  for  everything  the  governor  said  or  did. 
If,  therefore,  he  ever  yielded  to  Glinton,  who  sometimes  had 
opinions  of  his  own  and  was  stubborn  enough  in  pressing  their 
adoption,  he  did  so  at  his  own  risk  and  must  still  be  considered 
responsible.  Moreover,  he  has  left  sufficient  proof  that  he  com- 
posed the  governor's  official  utterances,  spoken  or  written. 
Rough  drafts  of  Glinton's  letters  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  to 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  of  his  speeches 
and  messages  to  the  general  assembly,  are  scattered  famiharly 
through  Golden 's  personal  correspondence,  written  in  Golden 's 
neat,  legible  hand;  while  numerous  allusions  and  directions 
and  the  identity  in  style  between  these  letters  and  messages 
and  the  rest  ascribed  to  Glinton  during  this  period  make  their 
common  origin  certain.  Not  only  the  same  ideas,  but  the  same 
peculiarities  of  expression  occur  over  and  over  again.     For 

1  At  Newburgh. 


A  Colonial  Politician  177 

Golden  believed  in  the  virtue  of  repetition,  and  when  month 
after  month  the  conditions  he  was  fighting  remained  almost 
unchanged,  he  found  the  old  arguments  perennially  serviceable. 
That  these  would  jprevail  in  the  colony  without  the  aid  of  Eng- 
lish authority  he  had  by  this  time  no  hope,  so  powerful  was  the 
Delancey  interest;  but  he  trusted  that  such  aid  would  come 
through  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  He  thought  to  win  the  duke's 
support,  furthermore,  not  so  much  through  the  Pelham-Chntons 
as  through  his  own  tale  of  persecuted  loyalty  and  his  picture 
of  the  probable  result,  should  the  persecutors  remain  unchecked. 
Hence,  though  he  did  not  neglect  the  Board  of  Trade,  his  most 
intimate  petitions  were  reserved  for  the  restless  eye  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  State.  But  for  some  reason  it  was  to  the  Board  of 
Trade  that  he  had  just  written  one  of  these  with  particular 
satisfaction.^  For,  besides  the  usual  prayer  for  his  own  ap- 
pointment as  lieutenant-governor  and  the  usual  rehearsal  of 
the  situation,  it  contained  a  new  suggestion  for  the  solution  of 
the  New  York  problem.  Delancey 's  commission,  Clinton  was 
made  to  say,  could  be  withdrawn  by  mandamus  under  the 
signet  and  sign  manual.  Indeed,  its  validity  was  questionable. 
For,  as  in  England,  to  change  the  tenure  of  an  office  required 
an  act  of  Parhament,  it  was  to  be  inferred  that  a  legislative  act 
of  some  sort  was  necessary  to  make  a  like  change  in  the  colonies. 
The  change  in  the  commission  of  the  chief  justice  of  New  York, 
however,  had  been  made  by  vote  of  the  executive  council  only, 
on  the  governor's  proposition.  With  little  comment.  Golden 
left  these  facts  to  make  their  own  appeal. 

But  it  was  now  time  for  action.  At  least  so  the  governor 
thought,  and  he  laid  before  the  council  certain  letters  from 
Shirley  to  himself,  urging  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to 
arrange  an  attack  on  the  French  by  the  combined  forces  of 
New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut.  The  council 
^  June  22,  1747,  N.  y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  352. 


178  Cadwallader  C olden 

expressed  approval  of  such  an  attack,  but,  in  order  to  save  the 
time  necessary  for  the  organization  of  the  commission,  drew  up 
a  plan  of  their  own.  This  included  simultaneous  assaults  on 
the  works  at  Crown  Point  and  Niagara  in  early  September, 
and  Chnton  was  asked  to  inform  the  assembly  that  he  proposed 
to  put  the  volunteers  into  camp  at  once  in  preparation  for  an 
active  fall  campaign.  He  was  also  to  request  a  subscription 
of  ;)^i4oo.  But  the  assembly  declared  that  it  would  be  a  breach 
of  confidence  to  vote  away  the  money  of  their  constituents 
without  further  knowledge  of  the  purpose  to  which  it  was  to  be 
devoted.  To  have  satisfied  them.  Golden  said  later,  would  have 
made  the  proposed  operations  town  talk  in  a  few  hours,  Albany 
gossip  in  a  few  days,  and  famiUar  to  the  interested  in  Canada 
by  the  end  of  the  week.  Such  a  thing,  he  added,  neither  house 
of  Parliament  had  ever  asked.  The  assemblymen's  curiosity, 
accordingly,  remained  unappeased,  and  on  the  2 2d  of  August, 
1747,  Clinton  laid  a  paper  before  the  council  stating  that  a 
despatch  from  Shirley  had  brought  word  that  the  king  had 
abandoned  the  Canadian  expedition  and  that  Shirley  and  Ad- 
miral Knowles  were  to  muster  out  the  volunteers ;  that  he  could 
say  nothing  more,  being  enjoined  to  secrecy ;  that  he  had  said 
so  much  only  because  he  feared  the  frontiers  would  be  other- 
wise left  defenceless ;  and  that,  once  and  for  all,  he  could  no 
longer  supply  the  Indians  and  the  volunteers  with  provisions.* 
The  paper  was  referred  to  a  committee,  and  meanwhile  the 
council  formally  addressed  the  governor,  begging  him  to  recon- 
sider the  encamping  of  the  forces,  which  had  been  posted  north 
of  the  city  of  Albany,  it  being  not  yet  a  month  since  they  had 
advised  the  encampment  themselves.  The  governor  passed  over 
this  annoying  exchange  of  responsibility  with  some  general 
remarks,  but  when  Horsmanden  came  from  the  committee  to 
ask  him  why  he  could  no  longer  provide  for  the  army,  he  repUed 
1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  667-673. 


A  Colonial  Politician  179 

that  he  had  spoken  with  sufficient  authority  and  was  accountable 
only  to  the  king.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Clinton  had  no  good  rea- 
son to  give,  though  he  afterward  based  his  refusal  on  the  pre- 
sumption of  the  council  in  questioning  his  decision  and  on  their 
outrageous  carelessness  as  well.  For,  despite  his  exhortations 
to  caution,  they  had  ordered  copies  of  his  paper  made  and  dis- 
tributed to  absent  members  and  had  met  to  discuss  it  at  a 
common  tavern.  The  committee  then  tried  to  get  some  informa- 
tion from  those  whom  they  described  as  "the  Gentlemen  having 
the  honour  to  be  most  in  his  Excellency's  confidence,"  But  they 
proved  elusive,  and  at  length  a  report  was  compiled  consisting 
mainly  of  a  recital  of  the  difficulties  of  its  construction.  Its 
manner,  however,  was  insinuating,  and  it  was  full  of  open,  if 
vague,  criticism  of  the  administration's  policy.  Yet  there  was 
much  astonishment  when,  after  it  had  been  presented  to  the 
governor  in  council  by  Horsmanden,  and  before  the  governor 
had  had  time  to  put  the  question  of  its  acceptance,  Colden 
moved  its  rejection.  This  procedure  was  unprecedented,  and 
during  the  debate  that  followed  the  governor  was  urged  to 
follow  the  traditional  rule.  But  he  only  said  that  he  would 
consider  it.  This  he  was  never  known  to  do,  and  the  report 
never  got  into  the  minutes.  There  seemed  reason  to  many  for 
saying  that  any  report  disagreeable  to  Mr.  Colden  would  meet 
a  like  fate.* 

The  ist  of  September  was  now  come  and  nothing  had  been 
done  except  to  appoint  the  commission  suggested  by  Shirley.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Jersey  men  in  garrison  at  Saratoga  were 
threatening  to  desert  for  want  of  provisions.  The  fort  there, 
called  after  the  governor  himself,  had  been  built  by  commis- 
sioners suggested  to  Clinton  when  he  had  been  a  complaisant 
novice  in  New  York  personalities.  Wretchedly  put  together 
and  poorly  equipped,  it  had  always  been  unpopular  with  the 

^  Committee  of  Council  Report,  August  26,  1747,  in  Colden  Correspondence. 


i8o  Cadwallader  C olden 

soldiers,  and  by  the  administration  was  considered  to  have 
been  badly  located.  The  assembly,  on  the  contrary,  pretended 
much  fondness  for  it,  though  their  refusal  to  repair  it,  resulting 
in  Clinton's  refusal  to  reenforce  it,  had  been  the  cause  of  its 
ahnost  complete  destruction  in  November,  1745.  It  had  then 
been  rebuilt,  with  an  even  greater  disregard  for  good  workman- 
ship, and  now  on  hearing  of  its  possible  abandonment,  the  as- 
sembly besought  Chnton  to  put  New  York  volunteers,  or  even 
regulars,  in  place  of  the  New  Jersey  deserters,  themselves  offer- 
ing to  furnish  the  necessary  provisions.  Moreover,  when  he 
did  not  reply  at  once,  they  repeated  their  request,  whereupon 
the  governor  announced,  as  he  had  announced  to  the  council, 
that  he  was  resolved  not  to  charge  another  penny  to  the  crown 
and  that  he  would  not  send  the  regulars  to  a  place  where  the 
volunteers  often  refused  to  go,  and  where  the  expense  of  frequent 
reUefs  was  always  necessary,  so  unhealthy  and  ill-equipped  was 
it  known  to  be.  He  did  not  add  that  he  had  told  Colonel 
Roberts  to  examine  it  thoroughly  and  bum  it  if  he  found  it 
untenable.  But  he  had  said  enough  to  prompt  a  resolution  to 
issue  another  representation,  and  though  he  would  have  given 
much  to  dissolve  the  assembly  and  so  postpone  it  at  least,  he 
did  not  dare.  For  the  much-discussed  commission  was  at  last 
met  in  the  city  and  it  required  an  assembly  to  hear  its  report. 
He  could  only  gain  a  brief  respite  by  adjourning  the  existing 
assembly  from  day  to  day,  meanwhile  flinging  defiance  at  the 
cabal  by  suspending  Horsmanden  and  Bayard  from  the  council, 
and  Horsmanden  from  his  other  government  employments  as 
well. 

This  deadlock  was  soon  broken  by  the  sad  state  of  the  Indians. 

During  the  summer  Colonel  Johnson  had  worked  hard.     ''I 

assure  Yr  Excellcy,"  he  had  written  on  the  17th  of  July,^  "I 

have  done  a  great  deal  of  service  since  I  came  home,  having 

'  For  these  letters  see  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  386-391. 


A  Colonial  Politician  i8i 

cleared  up  several  points  to  them  which  has  made  all  very  easy, 
but  chiefly  abt  our  not  destroying  Crown  Point,  thereby  to  open 
a  passage  for  them  to  Canada,  which  if  done  they  say  positively 
they  would  not  leave  a  soul  in  Canada,  but  they  would  drive 
into  Quebec  and  Montreal  with  very  little  of  our  assistance. 
I  sent  them  home  exceedingly  well  pleased,  which  is  more  than 
I  expected  could  be  done  as  affairs  stand  at  present.  I  assure 
Yr  Excellcy  that  they  all  promise  very  well  and  say  they  fear 
the  failure  will  be  on  our  side,  for  they  are  of  opinion  there  will 
come  more  Warriors  than  we  can  supply  or  fit  out ;  but  I  hope 
that  will  not  be  the  case,  if  it  is,  then  the  Country  was  ruined." 
And  on  the  4th  of  August  he  wrote :  "It  is  with  much  difficulty 
I  can  get  time  to  lay  Pen  to  Paper,  having  my  house  and  all  my 
outhouses  continually  full  of  Indians  of  all  the  Nations  and  more 
of  late  so  than  ever ;  there  is  not  a  day  I  can  assure  yr  Excell*^ 
but  I  am  obliged  to  sit  five  or  six  hours  in  their  Company  to 
hear  what  they  have  to  say,  and  answer  them  in  every  point, 
but  my  satisfaction  is,  I  can  say  my  endeavours  are  not  in  vain 
as  I  find  there  will  be  no  failure  or  delay  on  their  side.  .  .  .  The 
best  and  most  trusty  of  the  Six  Nations  have  by  my  solicitation 
wrought  strongly  upon  the  foreign  Nations.  ...  As  I  must 
expect  numbers  upon  this  Call,  it  will  be  requisite  that  Yr 
ExcelP  provide  in  time  whatever  may  be  necessary  for  their  re- 
ception and  fitting  out  for  they  all  expect  to  be  supplied  by  me 
as  being  their  Rendez-vous."  Ten  days  later  he  says :  *'I  hope 
Yr  Excellency  in  Council  will  consider  what  a  loss  I  sustain 
by  supplying  Oswego  at  this  dangerous  time,  being  obliged  to 
give  double  the  money  now  to  the  Men  as  usually  paid  (since 
that  murder  was  committed  at  Burnet's  Field)  which  is  the 
Road  to  Oswego.  I  could  not  get  a  man  to  go  with  the  provi- 
sions for  any  money,  therefore,  have  been  obliged  to  get  some 
Indians  lately  at  any  extraordinary  price  to  carry  some  Battoes 
there  but  now  can  get  no  more  of  either  Kind  to  go  there  without 


i82  Cadwallader  Colden 

a  good  guard."  On  the  19th  he  was  at  Albany  to  obtain  the 
assistance  of  Colonel  Roberts  and  Marshall  in  breaking  up  a 
nest  of  the  enemy  at  Lake  St.  Sacrament,  "  from  whence  they 
daily  send  large  parties  among  us  who  seldom  fail  of  doing  us 
mischief  ...  to  prevent  which  I  am  determined  (with  the  general 
approbation  of  all  the  Indians)  to  march  against  them  with  about 
300  Indians  and  as  many  Christians  most  of  whom  are  volun- 
teers. In  case  we  should  meet  with  no  success,  it  will  never- 
theless satisfye  the  Indians,  being  chiefly  their  desire,  it  will 
also  terrify  the  Enemy  much  to  find  such  a  number  of  men  in 
quest  of  them.  .  .  ."  On  the  28th  he  was  "just  setting  off  this 
instant  for  Lake  Sacrament  with  400  Christians  mostly  volun- 
teers and  about  as  many  Indians  here  present  besides  vast  num- 
bers by  the  Road,  who  were  met  yesterday,  by  one  of  my  people. 
He  says  for  about  1 2  miles  the  Road  was  fuU  of  them  .  .  .  they 
have  also  as  they  tell  me  called  upon  all  the  Foreign  Nations 
whom  they  expect  every  day ;  upon  which  I  left  some  people  at 
home  to  fit  them  out  with  what  necessarys  they  require,  and 
send  them  after  me  .  .  .  what  will  be  done  with  them  all  after 
my  return,  which  will  be  in  about  12  days  at  farthest,  I  can't 
tell,  having  nothing  left  of  any  consequence  for  them,  what 
would  be  worse,  to  let  such  a  parcel  of  fine  stout  fellows  go  back 
again  without  employing  them  further,  wherefore  I  hope  Yr 
ExcelP^  Council  and  Assembly  will  consider  of  it  seriously 
before  I  return,  otherwise  I  must  assure  Yr  Excell*^^  there  will 
be  no  Uving  for  me,  or  any  one  else  in  this  part  of  the  world, 
which  perhaps  the  Gentlemen  in  that  part  of  the  Country  may 
be  easy  at,  as  it  seems  to  all  people  here  they  are,  by  their  back- 
wardness which,  doubt  not  will  be  the  entire  ruin  of  the 
Country." 

But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  three  branches  of  the  legislature 
were  not  considering  anything  from  a  common  point  of  view. 
And  in  the  first  week  of  October,  Johnson,  accompanied  by  some 


A  Colonial  Politician  183 

Mohawks,  came  down  to  New  York  in  order  to  ask  supplies 
for  Indians  who  were  actually  starving.  For  a  year,  according 
to  their  promise  made  to  the  governor,  they  had  hung  around 
their  castles,  their  hunting-grounds  deserted,  ready  to  be  called  on 
at  any  time.  It  seemed  but  just  that  they  should  be  provided 
with  what  they  had  been  prevented  from  providing  themselves. 
Therefore,  once  more  Clinton  addressed  the  assembly,  asking 
for  money  for  the  Indians,  for  frontier  forts,  and  for  all  the  de- 
mands springing  from  the  scheme  of  attack  that  the  commis- 
sioners were  forming.  The  next  day  he  presented  the  scheme 
itself,  and,  though  the  commissioners  had  voted  and  Shirley  had 
written  his  opinion  that  the  Indian  alHance  still  depended  on  the 
crown,  he  again  urged  its  maintenance  by  the  colonists.  Two 
days  later  the  assembly  resolved  to  execute  their  part  of  the 
plan :  to  provide  for  the  protection  of  the  northern  frontier ;  to 
deposit  ;i^8oo  in  safe  hands  for  the  support  of  Indian  enthusi- 
asm ;  to  give  presents  to  the  visiting  sachems,  though  the  fate 
of  the  governor's  warrants  drawn  for  that  purpose  was  a  mys- 
tery ;  to  take  part  of  the  frontier  army  into  pay,  when  it  should 
be  disbanded;  and  to  send  provisions  to  Saratoga.  These 
resolutions  were  sent  to  the  governor  with  a  question.  Had  he, 
the  assembly  asked,  complied  with  their  request  for  the  reen- 
forcement  of  Saratoga?  This  was  so  far  from  being  the  case 
that  in  four  days  Saratoga  was  to  be  burned  with  his  permis- 
sion. But  he  said  nothing  of  this.  Instead,  he  burst  into  the 
following  message :  "By  your  votes  I  understand  you  are  going 
upon  things  very  foreign  to  what  I  recommended  you,  I  will 
receive  nothing  from  you  at  this  critical  juncture,  but  what  re- 
lates to  the  message  I  last  sent  you;  namely,  by  all  means 
immediately  to  take  the  preservation  of  the  frontiers  and  the 
fidehty  of  the  Indians  into  consideration.  The  loss  of  a  day 
may  have  fatal  consequences.  When  that  is  over,  you  may 
have  time  to  go  upon  any  other  matters." 


184  Cadwallader  C olden 

This  manifest  breach  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  house 
and  people,  as  the  assembly  defined  it,  met  heroic  treatment. 
As  soon  as  it  had  been  read,  the  door  of  the  assembly  room  was 
locked  and  the  key  laid  on  the  table,  after  which  significant 
action,  resolutions  ^  were  drawn  up  declaring  that  the  governor's 
adviser  "had  attempted  to  infringe  their  rights,  liberties,  and 
privileges,  violate  the  Uberties  of  the  people,  and  subvert  the 
constitution  of  the  colony  and  therefore  was  an  enemy  to  its 
inhabitants."  The  next  day  the  long-dreaded  remonstrance 
was  brought  in,  and,  as  Clinton  afterward  very  truly  said,  in 
less  time  than  it  would  have  taken  to  read  it  over  carefully,  it 
arrived  at  the  governor's  door.  According  to  Clinton,  the  com- 
mittee who  had  it  in  charge  rushed  headlong  into  the  room 
where  he  was  sitting,  one  member  at  once  offering  to  read  it 
aloud;  whereas  the  committee  maintained  that  they  had  been 
announced  by  a  servant  with  due  ceremony.  However  that 
may  have  been,  Clinton  refused  to  hear  a  word,  or  even  to  allow 
the  document  left  for  his  private  perusal,  and  the  assemblymen 
departed  as  they  had  come.  But  as,  in  the  answer  to  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  assembly  on  the  commissioners'  plan  and  the  re- 
strictive message  of  the  9th,  the  chief  arguments  of  the  remon- 
strance were  met,  the  refusal  to  read  it  may  be  regarded  as  merely 
formal.  This  answer  or  message,  and  the  remonstrance  itself, 
are  typical  of  the  literary  propaganda  of  the  opposing  factions, 
and  their  criticism  will  serve  for  many  other  effusions.* 

The  advantage  of  brevity  appealed  to  neither  of  the  two 
writers,  and  what  wit  there  might  be  was  lost  in  detail.  But 
Colden's  logic  was  stronger,  his  style  more  dignified,  his  sar- 
casm fresher.  His  repetitions  are  confined  to  statement  and 
argument ;  the  champion  of  the  assembly  rides  his  little  ironies 
to  exhaustion.    The  administration  claimed,  indeed,  that  the 

^  Journals,  etc.,  II,  173.     N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  673-674. 
»  Journals  and  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,   VI,  617-635. 


A  Colonial  Politician  185 

assembly's  fulminations  were  meant  for  simple  people  or  people 
ignorant  of  American  conditions ;  that  they  did  not  aim  to  re- 
dress grievances  but  to  make  Englishmen  fear  to  take  the  gov- 
ernment, at  the  same  time  bidding  for  the  support  of  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  population  who  had  been  bred  in  republican 
principles  and  in  ignorance  of  the  English  constitution.  The 
outburst  in  question  struck  at  Colden  specifically ;  charged  him 
with  the  destruction  of  the  harmony  prevaiHng  that  memorable 
June  when  he  had  come  to  town ;  declared  it  to  be  a  great  mis- 
fortune that  the  governor  had  "fallen  into  such  111  Hands,  that 
the  Fate  of  this  Colony  should  in  this  time  of  eminent  Danger, 
depend  solely  upon  the  advice  and  caprice  of  a  man  so  obnox- 
ious who  by  the  whole  course  of  his  conduct  seems  to  have  only 
his  own  interest  in  view  without  any  regard  to  the  safety  or 
Welfare  of  the  Colony";  and  assured  Clinton  that  many  of 
his  charges  had  no  other  ground  than  "the  wicked  imagination 
and  invention"  of  his  trusted  confidant.  The  remonstrance 
then  arraigned  the  governor  for  his  course  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army ;  the  contempt  he  evinced  in  his  speeches  for 
assembly  and  people;  his  short  adjournments,  involving  loss 
of  money  and  time ;  his  jeers  at  the  parsimony  of  the  colony's 
representatives ;  and  his  own  enormous  expenditures.  Finally, 
it  openly  declared  its  approval  of  an  Indian  neutrality,  and 
afl&rmed  that  the  relations  between  the  Mohawks  and  the 
Caughnawagas  made  it  absurd  to  think  the  Iroquois  would  ever 
fight  the  French  with  spirit,  and  that  three  French  scalps  and 
a  few  French  prisoners  were  the  only  visible  result  of  the  famous 
treaty. 

To  prove  that  the  administration  was  at  least  partly  right  in 
its  claim  that  the  assembly  was  not  out  for  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances, it  is  only  necessary  to  compare  this  document  with  other 
remonstrances  and  petitions  in  which  the  representatives  of  a 
people  have  striven  to  right  their  wrongs.     In  comparison  with 


i86  Cadwallader  Colden 

these  it  becomes  mere  petulance.  The  governor's  speeches 
were  full  of  angry  scorn,  but  it  was  caused  by  the  unexpected 
opposition  of  supposed  inferiors ;  he  had  adjourned  the  assembly 
daily  for  weeks  at  a  time,  but  only  to  ward  off  a  public  criticism 
of  his  administration  which  might  first  have  been  offered  in 
private ;  he  had  drawn  heavily  on  the  crown,  but  it  therefore 
belonged  to  the  crown  to  ask  an  account ;  his  military  arrange- 
ments had  not  been  faultless,  but  proof  was  lacking  that  the 
assembly's  would  have  been  better;  it  was  exasperating  to  call 
men  who  had  given  ;^7o,ooo  to  further  England's  plans  parsi- 
monious because  they  refused  to  give  what  there  was  no  reason 
for  giving,  but  it  was  worse  than  exasperating  for  the  assembly 
as  a  whole  to  oppose  in  public  the  administration's  French 
poHcy  and  to  affirm  instead  a  policy  acknowledged  to  be  favour- 
able to  the  Canadians.  There  might  be  Httle  to  show  for  the 
work  of  Johnson  among  the  Indians,  but,  to  use  the  argument 
of  the  doctors,  no  one  could  tell  how  much  worse  matters  might 
have  been  without  it,  while  it  was  the  attitude  of  the  council 
the  preceding  winter  that  had  prevented  the  use  of  an  oppor- 
tunity which  would  have  demonstrated  its  efficiency.  With  no 
great  issues,  therefore,  at  stake,  it  was  a  situation  that  called 
for  common  sense,  but  neither  side  wanted  to  change  their 
point  of  view  for  a  moment  or  to  see  how  easily  their  difficulties 
might  be  adjusted  were  they  but  wilUng. 

The  governor's  message,  on  the  contrary,  seemed  designed  to 
irritate.  In  Colden 's  stilted  language  Clinton  gloated  over  the 
acceptance  of  the  commission's  plan,  a  plan  closely  resembling 
that  which  he  with  Shirley  and  Warren  had  formed,  and  they 
had  rejected  the  previous  year ;  he  feUcitated  himself  still  more 
because  the  council  at  this  late  day  had  approved  his  scheme 
for  frontier  defence,  and  actually  instructed  the  commissioners 
to  build  one  or  more  forts  at  the  carry ;  he  reminded  them  glee- 
fully that  the  year  before  these  schemes  would  have  been  put 


A  Colonial  Politician  187 

through  by  the  crown.  The  insinuations  concerning  his  drafts 
on  the  home  treasury,  he  went  on,  were  outrageously  false,  and 
their  authors  knew  it ;  the  House  as  a  House  was  quite  ignorant 
of  the  amount  he  had  drawn,  and  the  slightest  curiosity  could 
have  discovered  his  expenditures.  Some  of  these  he  mentioned, 
and  then,  in  reference  to  the  incredulity  he  had  met  with  regard 
to  the  disbanding  of  the  forces  and  to  the  assembly's  importunity 
concerning  Saratoga,  he  offered  some  information  on  his  rights 
and  privileges  as  commander-in-chief,  incidentally  scoring  the 
jobbing  of  which  Saratoga  was  a  result.  Finally,  taking  up 
the  excited  resolutions  of  October  9th,  he  asked  some  pertinent 
questions  concerning  their  theatrical  setting.  "Why  this 
farce?"  he  demands.  ** Was  anyone  trying  to  break  in?  Or 
did  any  of  your  members  seem  wilHng  to  run  away  ?  Surely 
this  was  not  the  case.  Was  it  then,  to  assume  power  to  shut  me 
out?  If  so,  it  was  a  high  insult  to  his  Majesty's  authority. 
But,  Gentlemen,  how  by  my  message  did  I  encroach  on  your 
undoubted  rights  and  privileges  ?  I  told  you  what  I  would,  or 
would  not  do,  myself.  Consider  Gentlemen,  by  what  authority 
you  sit.  You  exist  by  virtue  of  the  commission  and  instructions 
and  yet  you  seem  to  place  yourselves  upon  the  same  foundation 
with  the  House  of  Commons  of  Great  Britain,  and  if  I  mistake 
not  the  resolves  of  the  9th  assume  all  its  rights  and  privileges. 
If  so,  you  assume  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Legislature  of  the  King- 
dom and  deny  your  dependence  on  the  Crown  and  Parliament. 
If  you  have  not  their  rights,  the  Giver  of  your  authority  can 
bound  your  rights  at  pleasure  and  I  must  now  tell  you  that 
I  have  his  Majesty's  express  commands  not  to  suffer  you  to 
bring  some  matters  into  your  House.  ...  In  short,  Gentlemen, 
I  must  tell  you,  that  every  branch  of  the  Legislature  and  all  of 
them  may  be  criminal  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  and  there  is  a 
power  able  to  punish  you  and  will,  if  provoked.  ..."  Colden 
had  been  preaching  sermons  of  this  sort  for  nearly  twenty  years 


1 88  Cadwallader  C olden 

but  never  to  so  large  an  audience,  and  the  desire  to  improve 
the  occasion  to  the  utmost  was  irresistible.  Still  he  was  only 
speaking  vicariously,  and  it  was  necessary  to  return  to  particu- 
lars. The  disrespect  that  had  been  shown  one  of  his  station 
and  family,  the  governor  concluded,  should  be  passed  by,  but 
never  again  would  he  receive  their  proceedings  in  public  unless 
they  had  first  been  presented  to  him  in  private,  never  again 
would  he  sign  a  support  bill  that  did  not  conform  to  his  com- 
mission and  instructions. 

The  moral  of  these  papers  is  evident.  So  far  had  the  legis- 
lature secured  for  itself  executive  functions  that  it  was  almost 
independent.  What  the  governor  still  did  he  had  to  pay  for 
without  its  aid.  Thus,  neither  had  much  hold  on  the  other, 
and  rehef  was  only  to  be  sought  in  mutual  recriminations,  fruit- 
less because  it  was  unnecessary  to  support  them  with  proof. 

The  assembly,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  promised  to  retain 
some  of  the  volunteers  after  their  dismissal  by  the  crown. 
When,  therefore,  Clinton  sent  down  a  message  requesting  pro- 
visions for  detachments  of  militia  which  he  proposed  to  send 
to  the  frontier,  the  members,  making  no  attempt  to  learn  the 
reason  for  this  determination,  expressed  their  astonishment  at 
such  vacillating  policy  and  at  the  same  time  explained  it  by  the 
governor's  connection  with  Golden.  Clinton  replied  that  he 
had  not  been  informed  by  the  speaker  of  the  terms  on  which 
the  soldiers  were  to  be  retained,  and  had  since  learned  that  the 
officers  were  to  receive  half  pay  only,  while  neither  officers  nor 
men  were  to  receive  arrears.  Therefore,  as  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  get  fit  commanders  at  wages  below  the  ordinary  recom- 
pense of  a  day  labourer,  he  had  considered  the  use  of  the  militia 
the  best  solution  of  the  difficulty.  It  was  they  who  were  re- 
sponsible for  his  change  of  plan,  their  refusal  to  advance  the 
army's  back  pay  on  the  king's  credit  was  reprehensible,  while 
the  free  expression  of  their  sentiments  certainly  seemed  in- 


A  Colonial  Politician  189 

tended  to  produce  a  bad  effect  outside.  The  assembly  retorted 
that  he  had  known  their  intentions  from  the  beginning,  and 
though  they  confessed  that  he  had  disapproved,  they  said  he 
had  promised  to  do  all  that  he  could  to  make  the  best  of  what 
he  considered  an  unwise  arrangement  when  the  time  for  muster- 
ing out  the  volunteers  should  be  set.  They  therefore  repeated 
their  surprise  at  his  asking  supplies  for  the  militia  before  the 
publication  of  this  date.  They  must  consider  this  proceeding 
not  only  a  mark  of  vacillation,  but  a  proof  that  he  did  not  want 
them  to  retain  any  of  the  levies,  and  rather  wished  that  the 
frontiers  should  be  left  unprotected.  For,  in  this  event,  he  could 
call  out  the  militia  and  thus  add  to  the  people's  burden. 

This  whole  incident  furnishes  an  example  of  the  mistaken 
policy  of  the  administration.  Shirley  and  Knowles  had  said 
that  the  home  government  had  directed  them  to  ask  the  colo- 
nial governors  either  to  continue  their  drafts  on  the  crown,  or 
to  request  their  assembhes  to  advance  the  necessary  amount 
for  settling  the  obligations  incurred  at  Newcastle's  orders.  No 
exception,  therefore,  could  be  taken  to  the  New  York  assembly's 
course  in  this  regard.  They  had  merely  refused  the  recom- 
mendation and  confined  Clinton  to  the  other  alternative.  Their 
remarks  concerning  the  miUtia,  on  the  other  hand,  were  danger- 
ous and  merited  serious  attention,  yet  the  two  issues  had  been 
so  closely  associated  that  the  one  received  the  careless  considera- 
tion the  other  deserved.  Indeed,  it  was  almost  superfluous  for 
CUnton  to  offer  a  suggestion  or  state  a  fact,  and  at  this  time  a 
widely  quoted  sentence  from  his  last  letter  to  the  Board  of 
Trade  was  destroying  what  little  influence  he  may  have  re- 
tained. A  governor  could  not  write  home:  "I  can  justly  say 
that  the  expense  of  the  colonists  in  North  America  in  proportion 
to  their  abilities  is  in  no  manner  adequate  to  that  which  the 
people  of  England  cheerfully  submit  to  in  defence  of  the  Uberties 
of  Europe,"  ^  and  hope  at  the  same  time  to  meet  with  much 

^  Clinton  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  September  27,  1747. 


iQO  Cadwallader  C  olden 

sympathy  in  his  difficulties.  And  even  when  his  fears  of  the 
effect  of  the  assembly's  rhetoric  were  shown  to  have  been  justi- 
fied, there  was  general  indifference.  On  the  9th  of  November 
the  mihtia  in  New  York  City  were  summoned  to  their  parade 
ground  on  the  common.  Their  line  of  march  was  past  the 
governor's  house,  and  Clinton  with  his  little  daughter  was 
watching  them  from  one  of  the  windows,  when  a  private  wheeled 
halfway  round  and  presented  and  then  fired  his  gun  at  the  two 
spectators.  Yet  his  captain,  a  member  of  the  assembly,  merely 
looked  back  and  laughed.  When,  moreover,  the  men  arrived 
at  the  common,  and  their  officers  read  aloud  the  governor's 
orders,  they  unanimously  refused  to  stir  a  step  without  an  act 
of  assembly.     And  they  refused  with  impunity. 

The  mihtia  having  thus  eliminated  themselves  from  the  situa- 
tion, and  the  assembly  having  decided  that  the  retention  of  the 
king's  volunteers  was  hopeless  under  the  circumstances,  they 
voted  to  begin  afresh  and  raise  eight  hundred  men  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  frontier.  They  also  passed  a  bill  for  a  magazine 
of  provisions  at  Albany,  and  sent  it  to  the  governor,  at  the  same 
time  requesting  him  to  issue  warrants  for  recruiting  the  colonial 
volunteers.  But  Chnton  would  receive  neither  messengers 
nor  vote  unless  they  were  accompanied  by  the  speaker.  He 
might  better  have  done  so.  For  his  refusal  met  instant  retalia- 
tion in  the  publication  and  distribution  of  the  remonstrance. 
This  was  in  direct  defiance  of  the  governor,  whose  order  to  the 
printer  and  all  whom  it  might  concern  to  let  the  remonstrance 
alone  had  been  pubHshed  in  the  Gazette.  He  was  powerless, 
however,  to  enforce  it,  and  after  receiving  a  formal  address  from 
the  assembly,  which  besought  his  assent  to  a  provisions  bill  before 
the  winter  set  in,  he  yielded.  Affirming  his  disapproval  and  his 
determination  to  keep  up  the  struggle  for  constitutional  forms, 
on  the  25th  of  November  he  signed  a  bill  for  the  purchase  and 
transportation  of  army  rations  and  one  raising  ;;^28oo  for  the 


A  Colonial  Politician  loi 

protection  of  the  frontier.  At  the  same  time  he  dissolved  the 
assembly  in  a  bitter  speech,  which  recited  again  the  events  of 
the  session. 

This  was  a  double  defeat  for  Golden.  Not  only  had  he  tried 
through  the  governor  to  force  the  situation,  but  in  the  council 
he  had  used  every  argument  to  defeat  these  bills  and  others  that 
had  been  equally  successful.  But  he  was  alone  in  his  stubborn 
resistance,  and  his  protests  could  only  satisfy  his  conscience. 
Yet  considering  the  nature  of  the  government,  his  objections 
were  only  reasonable.  When  commissioners  were  named  to 
purchase  and  transport  provisions  for  the  army,  he  moved  an 
amendment  that  their  disposition  be  given  to  the  governor  or 
the  commander-in-chief.  But  he  was  voted  down.  When  it 
was  resolved  to  pass  over  the  revenue  from  the  new  tax  to  com- 
missioners, who  were  to  pay  the  eight  hundred  volunteers, 
issue  their  provisions,  and  buy  their  gunpowder  and  lead,  he 
dissented  because  the  money  was  to  be  issued  without  the  gov- 
ernor's warrant,  and  because  the  method  by  which  the  bills 
were  to  be  cancelled  was  open  to  fraud.  When  commissioners 
were  named  to  make  a  statement  of  the  colony  accounts  from 
1 713  on,  he  dissented  because  the  nomination  of  such  commis- 
sioners belonged  to  the  governor  only;  because  wine  and  mer- 
chandise were  the  chief  source  of  the  government  income,  and 
the  merchant  commissioners  were  interested  persons;  because 
the  statement  was  not  to  be  binding  and  it  was  possible  to  infer 
that  the  members  of  the  assembly  were  to  be  perpetual  auditors 
of  the  public  money ;  because  the  proceedings  of  the  commission 
were  unregulated ;  because  the  statement  was  to  be  pubHshed 
in  the  newspapers ;  and  because  the  salaries  of  the  commissioners 
were  to  be  perpetual.  Finally,  when  it  was  resolved  that  certain 
commissioners  should  cancel  certain  bills  of  credit,  he  dissented 
because  they  were  nominated  and  were  to  be  paid  without 
the  governor's  cognizance;    because  certain  bills  were  to   be 


IQ2  Cadwallader  Colden 

cancelled  in  place  of  certain  others,  thus  disturbing  the  financial 
balance  and  possibly  leaving  bills  uncancelled  after  their  period 
of  circulation  had  expired ;  and  because  no  evidence  of  the  can- 
cellation was  demanded,  thus  enabUng  the  commissioners  to 
pocket  the  bills  and  bring  them  out  again  when  they  wished.^ 

A  session  of  more  than  three  months  was  now  at  an  end,  and 
yet  the  attack  on  Crown  Point  was  not  appreciably  nearer  nor 
were  the  difficulties  of  the  administration  appreciably  dimin- 
ished. But  there  was  no  time  for  regret,  as  the  approaching 
election  called  for  the  energy  of  all  good  partisans.  It  was 
clear  that  a  word  of  EngHsh  authority  in  favour  of  the  governor 
and  his  friends  would  have  much  to  do  with  their  success. 
Hence  the  letters  to  Newcastle  began  to  say  openly  that  the 
confidence  of  the  opposition  could  not  but  be  increased  by  the 
silence  so  carefully  maintained  by  the  ministry.  The  letters 
also  asked  favours  by  which  the  administration  would  be 
strengthened,  notably,  the  suspension  of  Phihp  Livingston  from 
the  secretaryship  of  Indian  affairs  and  from  the  council ;  and 
the  substitution  on  the  council  board  of  James  Alexander  for 
Horsmanden;  of  William  Johnson  for  Stephen  Bayard;  and 
of  Brandt  Schuyler  for  PhiHp  Cortland,  who  had  died.  But 
the  man  whom  every  one  wanted  to  propitiate  was  Sir  Peter 
Warren. 

Warren's  transformation  into  a  cosmopolitan  celebrity  had 
not  made  him  the  less  a  colonial.  He  considered  New  York, 
where  he  had  established  his  family  in  fine  style,  to  be  his  per- 
manent home,  and  was  quite  willing  to  promote  the  interests 
of  his  American  connections,  and,  in  particular,  was  doing  all 
he  could  to  satisfy  James  Delancey's  ambition  to  become  lieu- 
tenant-governor. Under  the  circumstances,  it  was  superfluous 
for  another  candidate  to  bespeak  his  favour.  But  the  circum- 
stances were  not  generally  knovm,  and  when  Colden  wrote  to 

1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  680-682. 


A  Colonial  Politician  193 

congratulate  him  on  his  latest  achievement,  he  said :  "I  am  sorry 
that  I  cannot  send  you  accounts  from  this  part  of  the  world 
that  can  in  any  manner  correspond  with  the  actions  with  which 
you  have  fill'd  all  our  newspapers.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  every- 
thing from  America  will  appear  too  much  otherwise  except 
what  has  been  done  by  your  nephew  Colonel  Johnson,  who  by 
his  Negotiations  &  Interest  with  the  Indians  has  exceeded  all 
our  Expectations  &  has  with  indefatigable  labour  &  pains  don 
as  much  for  the  safety  of  the  British  Colonies  in  North  America 
as  any  one  man  in  them.  It  is  with  pleasure  I  think  that  I  have 
been  of  some  use  to  him,  but  otherwise  as  to  my  own  part,  I 
am  heartily  sorry  that  I  have  been  obliged  to  have  any  share  in 
the  publick  affairs  at  this  time  &  which  I  pray  you'l  give  me 
leave  to  tell  you  was  far  from  being  my  own  choice.  My  thoughts 
were  entirely  formed  upon  another  plan.  .  .  .  You  know  sir  the 
men  and  Manners  of  the  Country.  I  am  in  some  measure 
known  to  you  let  me  beg  of  you  not  to  lose  any  esteem  you  had 
for  me  till  you  are  assured  I  deserve  that  punishment  by  acting 
contrary  to  his  Majesty's  Interest  or  the  rules  observed  by 
men  of  honour  and  while  I  do  so  I  hope  to  have  your  favour 
continued.  .  .  . "  * 

VI 

The  old  assembly  had  been  dissolved,  but  a  new  one  was  to 
be  elected,  and  when  Colden  returned  to  Ulster  in  December, 
1747,  it  was  not  to  rest  but  to  work  hard  for  the  administration 
candidates.  He  was  not,  however,  interested  in  the  local 
nominees  alone.  Political  literature  from  the  New  York 
presses  was  circulating  everywhere  in  the  towns  and  was  even 
finding  its  way  to  farmhouses  and  country  taverns.  Consisting 
for  the  most  part  of  lampoons   and    doggerel,  more    serious 

^  November  26,  1747. 


194  Cadwallader  Colden 

arguments  were  occasionally  attempted.  "A  Letter  to  the 
Governor  by  several  Assemblymen,"  for  instance,  so  dramati- 
cally pictured  the  wretched  condition  of  the  people  of  New 
York,  ground  down  by  taxes  to  defray  the  cost  of  the  war,  that 
Colden  was  asked  to  reply  to  it  in  detail.  This  reply,  however, 
did  not  reach  the  city  until  after  the  election,  and  meanwhile 
Colden  conducted  a  campaign  of  education  from  his  Ulster 
headquarters.  His  "Address  to  the  Freeholders  and  Freemen  of 
the  Cities  &  Counties  of  the  Province  of  New  York  by  a  Free- 
holder "  is  one  of  the  best  of  his  political  papers.  He  goes  over 
the  whole  case,  of  course,  but  he  discards  his  worn-out  phrases 
and  employs  a  lighter  style.  Especially  does  he  attack  the 
opposition's  habit  of  assertion  without  proof.  "On  this  occa- 
sion," he  wrote,  "every  one  must  remember  that  Rumour  and 
Report  was  a  Fine  Engine  to  throw  dirt  upon  a  Governour. 
But  we  who  are  not  assemblymen  may  think  it  as  proper 
an  implement  against  assemblymen's  commissrs.  If  rumour 
and  report  be  a  sufficient  ground  to  charge  a  Govr  why  has 
it  not  some  force  to  charge  when  rumour  and  report  is  as  strongly 
against  them.  There  has  been  a  rumour  and  report  that  con- 
siderable quantities  of  Beef  and  Pork  was  so  bad  that  it  was 
condemn 'd  as  unfit  to  be  eat  yet  this  cost  the  Country  with 
good.  Rumour  and  Report  affirm  that  several  barrels  of  Bread 
had  good  bread  at  both  ends  and  in  the  midle  what  was  only 
fit  for  hogs  and  yet  the  middle  cost  the  same  price  to  the 
Country  with  the  best.  Rumour  and  report  told  us  that  the 
men  were  cheated  out  of  one  quarter  of  the  rum  allow'd  them 
and  paid  for  by  the  Country.  And  Rumour  and  report  posi- 
tively affirms  that  very  considerable  quantities  of  the  Coun- 
trie's  Provisions  has  been  sold  at  Auction  and  converted  to 
Private  use.  May  I  ask  how  it  comes  that  Rumour  and  Report 
should  be  of  such  Credit  against  a  Govr  &  deserve  no  notice  or 
regard  when  it  is  as  positive  an  evidence  against  assemblymen 


A  Colonial  Politician  195 

and  their  Creatures.  After  this  he  must  be  a  mere  simple 
David  indeed,  who  can  believe  that  the  abusive  language  which 
has  been  vented  against  Govr  Clinton  was  only  to  prevent 
embezUng  the  publick  Treasures.  What  other  purpose  it  was 
to  serve  the  Assembly  has  not  thought  proper  to  own.  But  as  it 
does  not  require  any  extraordinary  Sagacity  to  discover  it  I 
shall  leave  it  to  enquiry  of  the  Electors  of  New  Assemblymen. 
They  must  be  httle  acquainted  with  mankind  who  can  think 
there  could  be  any  great  danger  from  the  power  of  a  Governour 
when  they  who  are  subject  to  his  power  dare  treat  him  in  the 
manner  Govr  Clinton  has  been  treated.  ..." 

"All  deviations  from  our  Constitution,"  he  said  further  on, 
"must  either  proceed  from  the  ignorance  of  the  Beauty  of  it 
or  from  a  desire  to  destroy  it.  But  in  all  attempts  of  this  kind 
the  people  of  this  Province  have  something  more  to  fear  than 
independent  States  have.  Every  endeavour  to  wrest  the  King's 
Authority  out  of  the  hands  of  his  Governour  may  draw  on  the 
Resentment  not  only  of  the  King  but  Hkewise  of  a  British 
Parliament  who  allready  seem  to  have  become  jealous  of  the 
Dependence  of  their  Colonies.  Witness  a  Bill  not  long  since 
prepared  for  ParHament  which  alarmed  all  the  Colonies. 

"If  this  should  be  the  Case  that  the  Parliament  should  think 
that  we  abused  the  Privileges  with  which  we  are  indulged  and 
should  think  it  necessary  to  put  us  under  a  more  absolute 
authority.  We  the  common  middhng  people  are  most  likely  to 
suffer.  These  very  men  who  by  their  grasping  after  undue 
power  endanger  our  greatest  Privileges  may  escape  the  pun- 
ishment while  the  innocent  suffer,  for  those  fondest  of  power 
are  most  likely  to  be  its  tools  that  they  may  be  gainers  by  it.  .  .  . 
Some  perhaps  may  say  that  these  men  have  been  fighting  the 
Country's  cause  against  the  encroachments  of  a  Governour,  &, 
therefore,  should  not  be  deserted  but  supported  by  their  country. 
But  if  what  has  been  before  observM  be  well  considered  I  suspect 


196  Cadwallader  C olden 

strongly  it  will  appear  that  these  violent  opposers  of  a  Governour 
have  had  their  own  private  Views  more  at  heart  than  the  good 
of  the  Country.  Consider  seriously  my  Dear  countrymen 
whether  in  the  late  public  Dissentions,  Love  of  worldly  power, 
Profitable  employment  in  the  Disposing  of  the  Country's  money, 
Foohsh  and  mischievous  Contentions  for  Uttle  paltry  posts 
and  Distinctions,  do  not  too  evidently  appear  to  have  been  the 
principle  motives.  .  .  .  Till  of  late  I  could  not  believe  the  Story 
of  him  who  refused  to  pump  in  a  sinking  ship  because  one  on 
board  whom  he  hated,  would  be  saved.  The  next  Argument 
which  I  have  heard  insisted  on  for  the  Re-election  of  our  late 
representatives  in  the  County  especially  is  that  they  are  all  of 
them  men  of  the  best  estates  in  the  County  &  consequently 
must  be  firmly  attached  to  the  Interest  of  the  County  where 
their  Estates  lie.  To  this  I  answer  we  have  others  of  as  good 
estates  as  they  have  &  who  have  not  had  their  Judgments 
byassed  &  their  Passions  exasperated  by  having  been  personally 
engaged  in  our  wofuU  dissensions.  ...  I  must  further  observe 
that  riches  are  not  allwise  acquired  by  the  honestest  means  nor 
are  they  allwise  accompanied  with  the  greatest  integrity  of 
mind,  with  the  most  knowledge  or  the  most  generous  public 
sentiments.  .  .  .  • 

"  In  all  countries  and  in  all  ages  the  middling  rank  of  mankind 
have  the  reputation  of  being  generally  the  most  honest.  The 
estates  of  the  middling  rank  are  as  dear  to  them  as  the  estates 
of  the  richest  are  to  them.  At  the  same  time  they  of  a  mid- 
dUng  rank  must  allwise  be  more  cautious  of  making  an  ill  use 
of  any  good  qualities  they  may  be  possessed  of  than  some  rich 
men  who  know  the  force  of  money  and  powerfuU  or  rich  rela- 
tions to  screen  them  from  particular  enquiries  into  their  Con- 
duct. Now  my  Dear  Countrymen  never  was  there  a  time 
wherein  we  ought  to  be  more  carefuU  and  more  disinterested 
in  the  Choice  of  Representatives  than  now  when  this  Country 


A  Colonial  Politician  197 

as  I  at  first  observ'd  is  exposed  to  the  two  most  dangerous 
Enemies  that  any  Country  can  be  exposed  to  The  French  & 
merciless  Indians.  And  when  we  may  be  Hkewise  exposed  to 
the  resentment  of  our  King  and  a  British  Parliament  by  the 
Indiscreet  &  passionate  behaviour  of  our  late  Representatives 
in  a  manner  which  I  am  sorry  to  say  may  be  thought  disrespect- 
ful of  all  Authority  &  of  our  dependence  on  Great  Britain. 
This  I  think  highly  concerns  us  to  remove  every  Jealousy  of 
this  kind  from  our  Superiors  because  we  can  have  no  defence 
against  it  but  by  removing  it,  which  I  doubt  not  may  be  easily 
don  by  the  prudent  behaviour  of  our  next  Assembly.  For  which 
purpose  let  us  unite  heartily  &  sincerely  in  the  choice  of  such  as 
we  are  persuaded  know  the  interest  of  our  Country  &  are  most 
resolute  to  pursue  it  without  prejudice  and  view  to  party  In- 
terest or  to  the  Satisfying  their  private  Views  Passions  or 
resentments."  ^ 

But  even  apart  from  his  interest  in  the  elections  Colden's 
public  responsibilities  had  followed  him  from  the  city.  Clinton 
needed  the  support  of  a  stronger  nature,  and,  though  he  realized 
that  Colden  had  not  helped  him  much,  he  could  lean  on  no  one 
else,  at  least  for  the  time  being.  Therefore  he  leaned  on  Colden 
still.  The  unfortunate  governor  was  convinced  that  the  opposi- 
tion was  gaining  ground  in  the  city,  he  feared  that  the  assembly 
would  refuse  to  accept  the  amendments  made  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Court  to  the  commission's  plan  for  the  attack 
on  Canada,  and  he  was  generally  concerned  at  the  overtures 
of  certain  of  the  enemy  to  one  of  the  best  of  his  few  friends. 
Above  all,  he  was  sadly  puzzled  at  the  complexity  of  his  position, 
and  would  have  given  much  to  be  able  to  settle  everything  by 
a  fair  fight  in  the  open.  Instead,  he  stormed  and  blustered 
one  moment,  and  made  some  clumsy  attempt  at  diplomacy 
the  next,  but  always  with  a  suggestion  of  helpless  uncertainty 

^  The  Colden  Correspondence  contains  a  copy  of  the  address. 


198  Cadwallader  Colden 

that  was  almost  pathetic.  On  one  of  these  milder  impulses, 
in  anticipation  of  the  coming  assembly,  he  wrote  to  Coldengham 
for  an  "agreeable  speech."^  He  wanted  one,  he  said,  that 
would  show  his  people  that  he  had  no  maHce  at  heart,  and  to 
this  suggestion  Colden  gave  his  approval,  though  probably 
with  regret.  "I  have  no  copy  of  the  agreement  [between  the 
commissioners],"  he  rephed,  "so  I  cannot  judge  of  the  amend- 
ments made  at  Boston,  but  I  beUeve  the  Assembly  will  be 
puzzled  in  either  agreeing  to  the  Amendments  or  in  refusing. 
The  taking  of  Crown  Point  is  exceedingly  popular  &  they  may 
risque  their  popularity  which  they  have  so  much  at  heart  by 
refusing  to  consent  to  the  Amendments  unless  the  reasons  for 
refusing  be  very  apparently  sufficient.  .  .  .  On  the  other  hand, 
I  am  persuaded  that  the  Assembly  will  find  themselves  under 
such  difficulties  in  the  execution  of  the  agreement  that  they 
will  gladly  get  out  from  it  if  they  can.  .  .  .  This  may  give  Yr 
Excellcy  a  handsom  opportunity  of  Exposing  the  obstinacy  of  the 
Assembly  in  refusing  to  retain  the  new  levies  on  the  terms  Your 
Excellency  proposed.  My  humble  opinion  with  submission  is 
that  Your  Excellency  should  present  this  affair  only  in  general 
terms  .  .  .  because  I  believe  it  will  be  hardly  possible  to  extricate 
themselves  from  the  difficulties  which  may  arise  in  their  resolu- 
tions &  therefore  perhaps,  they  might  be  glad  of  finding  some 
new  disputes."  ^ 

CHnton's  depression,  however,  was  too  well  founded  to  be 
cheered  by  the  optimism  of  a  man  so  far  away.  He  could  only 
repeat  that  he  felt  completely  stranded;  that  the  Rutherfords 
had  actually  been  invited  to  meet  the  Delanceys ;  and  that  he, 
or  Colden,  or  both,  had  been  attacked  in  a  document  sent  home 
on  the  last  ship.  Yet,  when  Colden,  at  the  close  of  a  letter 
transmitting  the  speech  he  had  written  for  the  governor,  said 

'  January  2,  1747/8. 
'  January  10,  1747/8. 


A  Colonial  Politician  199 

quite  casually  that  perhaps  the  public  business  would  go  more 
smoothly  without  him,  his  probably  Hght-hearted  suggestion 
was  accepted  with  suspicious  promptness.  "I  have  now  a  new 
scene  to  open  to  you  at  which  I  am  greatly  moved,"  wrote 
Clinton  on  January  31,  1748.  "The  day  before  Yesterday 
Waddel  arrived  from  London  and  brought  me  a  Notification 
from  ye  Duke  of  Newcastle  that  Chief  Justice  Delancey  was 
appointed  Leut  Governr  of  this  Province  and  by  a  letter  from 
Sir  Peter  I  find  it  was  obtained  by  his  means  who  has  insinuated 
so  far  to  His  Grace  that  we  are  on  good  terms  &  by  means  of 
a  Defamation  which  has  been  lodged  agst  you  in  England  by 
their  Faction  and  their  Party  here,  which  has  succeeded  so  far 
that  I  am  wholly  disapointed  in  my  Expectations  of  what  I 
was  confident  I  could  secure  to  you.  I  persuade  myself  you 
think  I've  done  you  justice  in  that  Respect,  as  you  had  the 
penning  of  the  recommendations  which  I  transmitted  to  His 
Grace  On  yr  behalf.  The  Commission  is  to  be  with  me  till  I 
think  proper  to  diliver  it  in  order  to  keep  him  to  his  good 
behavour  and  I  find  by  his  Discourse  he  has  directions  from 
home  to  assist  me  and  to  make  things  easier.  The  Assembly 
is  to  meet  soon.  I  shall  have  a  triall  of  his  Conduct  with  them. 
My  Leave  of  Absence  is  come  over  but  I  have  fixed  upon  no 
time  as  yet  for  going,  nor  will  I  leave  the  Province  before  I  see 
you  in  some  way  or  other  secured  from  the  Resentment  of  Yr 
Enemies. 

"  In  the  meantime  you  may  depend  upon  my  Endeavours  of 
doing  you  all  ye  Justice  Imaginable  with  his  Grace  in  Vindica- 
tion of  your  Character.  I  approve  of  ye  hint  you  give  me  & 
perhaps  ye  publick  buisiness  may  go  on  more  smoothly  in  your 
Absence  for  some  time  And  shall  dispence  therewith  till  I 
see  how  ye  Chief  Justice  intends  to  proceed  nevertheless  you 
may  depend  on  my  Endeavours  to  serve  you  &  any  of  your 
Family  for  ye  services  you  have  done  me.     I  shall  write  more 


200  Cadwallader  Colden 

fully  by  your  son.  A  ship  will  go  in  a  fortnight  for  London 
&  anything  you  have  to  say  in  your  own  Vindication  to  His 
Grace  or  Lds  of  Trade  I  will  take  care  it  is  delivered  but  let 
it  be  as  short  as  possible  .  .  .  but  what  I  fear  most  is  that  Sr. 
P.  bribes  .  .  . ,  that  my  letters  are  not  delivered  &  that  Leut. 
Gover"""  Clark  has  had  a  share  of  giving  Characters  but  whiles 
there  is  Life  there  is  hopes.  ..." 

If  this  unexpected  acquiescence  in  his  continued  absence 
annoyed  Colden,  he  did  not  let  Clinton  know  it.  "I  must  own 
that  I  was  moved  with  the  account  Your  Excellency  gave  me," 
he  wrote,  "but  when  I  consider'd  how  much  more  reason  Your 
Excelly  had  to  be  moved  I  thought  it  became  me  to  bear  any 
disappointment  with  patience.  Upon  cool  reflection,  however 
contrary  to  expectation  this  event  may  be  yet  now  it  has  hap- 
pen'd  I  do  not  think  there  is  anything  surprising  in  it.  The 
Duke's  time  is  so  exceedingly  engaged  in  affairs  of  greater  im- 
portance that  he  can  have  Uttle  time  to  reflect  on  our  pubUck 
affairs.  The  opinion  he  may  have  of  Sr  Peter  may  easily  in- 
cline him  to  favour  a  proposal  by  which  Your  Excellency  was 
to  be  made  easy  &  the  Duke  himself  freed  from  trouble  & 
this  the  more  likely  to  happen  while  he  was  not  fully  informed  of 
what  has  happened  in  this  Country. 

"However  this  may  be  your  Excelly  is  not  thereby  reduced 
to  any  necessity  of  making  compliances  unbecoming  you.  If 
you  please  to  read  over  the  powers  granted  Your  Excellency 
by  Your  Commission  you'l  find  you  have  power  sufficient  to 
rectify  everything  &  if  Your  Excellency  should  return  to  Eng- 
land the  past  proceedings  will  justify  your  Excellency  with  the 
most  severe  judge.  I  have  many  reasons  to  think  that  the 
generality  of  the  people  are  not  pleas 'd  with  the  change.  Many 
openly  speak  their  Sentiments  &  I  believe  many  are  of  the 
same  opinion  who  ...  do  not  care  to  speak.  .  .  . 

"However  this  be  I  hope  your  Excellency  can  never  comply 


A  Colonial  Politician  201 

with  the  most  dishonourable  part  of  the  worst  terms  that  can  be 
offered  that  is  of  restoring  the  infamous  scribbler  to  any  power 
of  exerting  his  malice  otherwise  than  by  his  vile  pen  which 
must  soon  want  ink  if  Your  Excellency  do  not  enable  him  to  go 
on.  ...  As  to  what  relates  to  myself  I  entirely  depend  on  your 
Excellency's  honour.  .  .  ." 

Meanwhile,  on  February  12,  1748,  the  assembly  had  met. 
The  news  of  Delancey's  appointment  had  been  rushed  through 
the  more  accessible  portions  of  the  province  on  the  eve  of  the 
elections,  and,  for  this  reason,  or  because  others  had  not  worked 
so  heartily  as  Golden,  almost  all  the  old  members  were  returned, 
and  Jones  was  once  more  speaker.  This  gave  Clinton  an  oppor- 
tunity to  prove  the  sincerity  of  the  popular  leaders.  It  could 
now  no  longer  be  said  that  his  policy  from  day  to  day  was  dic- 
tated by  Colden's  ambition,  and,  freed  from  this  excuse,  the 
real  issues  between  governor  and  assembly  could  easily  have  been 
defined.  But  he  did  not  force  their  definition.  James  Alex- 
ander, under  whose  influence  he  now  came,  was  not  a  politi- 
cian. In  the  enthusiasm  of  his  young  manhood  he  had,  indeed, 
firmly  opposed  the  arbitrary  methods  of  a  succession  of  gov- 
ernors. But  he  had  opposed  because  he  felt  that  the  rights 
of  the  people  were  threatened.  His  reward  was  suspension 
from  the  council,  and  now  he  found  himself,  years  after,  ad- 
vising a  governor  who  was  in  hostile  relations  with  the  very 
men  he  had  himself  fought  in  his  youth.  But  whether  other 
interests  had  brought  indifference,  or  whether  he  could  not 
easily  sympathize  with  the  representatives  of  a  government 
which  had  so  carelessly  misjudged  him,  he  counselled  oblivion, 
conciUation,  submission.  "I  am  sure,"  he  wrote  to  Golden, 
"I  would  rather  Ghuse  your  present  State  with  a  very  moderate 
Subsistence  than  the  fatigues  you  underwent  for  a  year  before 
with  a  thousand  a  year  laid  in  the  Scale  with  them;"  *  and  for 

^  March  29,  1748. 


202  Cadwallader  Colden 

his  part  he  did  not  propose  to  fatigue  himself  unnecessarily. 
The  assembly  were  not  so  magnanimous  as  to  take  no  advantage 
of  this  policy.  Therefore,  when  Clinton  asked  their  assent  to 
the  alterations  in  the  commissioners'  plan  that  had  been  sug- 
gested by  Massachusetts,  they  promptly  refused  to  accept  them. 
The  alterations,  they  said,  would  defeat  its  purpose.  When 
CUnton  announced  that  Newcastle  had  written  that  the  crown 
would  pay  for  presents  to  the  Indians,  and  keep  any  fort 
the  colonists  might  take,  they  only  expressed  approval  and 
promised  to  pay  commissioners  to  make  further  arrangements. 
And  when  Clinton  urged  their  concurrence  in  a  joint  expedi- 
tion once  more,  they  said  they  could  do  nothing  without  the 
promise  of  assistance  from  the  governments  to  the  south, 
though  some  time  before  they  had  given  informal  assurance 
of  their  cooperation  should  the  EngUsh  government  guarantee 
the  maintenance  of  their  conquests.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
gained  the  governor's  assent  to  various  bills  on  the  old  lines; 
they  forced  his  acquiescence  in  the  appointment  of  an  agent 
at  St,  James,  merely  by  inserting  his  salary  in  the  salary  bill; 
while  they  secured  ;^i  50  for  Horsmanden,  ostensibly  for  drafting 
certain  bills,  but  really,  it  was  said,  for  writing  Ubels  on  Clinton 
himself.  Not  that  Clinton  was  entirely  passive.  He  wrote 
home  begging  the  ministry  to  listen  to  nothing  from  the  agent 
unless  authorized  by  him,  and  he  never  failed  to  tell  his  council 
what  he  had  thought  of  a  bill.  But  at  Alexander's  suggestion, 
he  took  their  advice  as  he  had  always  been  supposed  to  do. 

Of  these  proceedings  Colden  was  kept  well  informed,  for 
CHnton  had  by  no  means  done  with  him.  He,  however,  was  not 
sitting  idle  in  the  hope  of  a  recall.  Rather,  he  was  exceedingly 
busy  picking  up  the  threads  of  a  scientific  life.  "I  knew  the 
chances  that  attended  the  Game,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  New 
York.  "I  am  not  sorry  nor  can  I  blame  myself  for  any  part  I 
had  in  it .  .  .  and  you  need  be  under  no  difficulty  in  writing  fully 


A  Colonial  Politician  203 

of  occurrences  the  bad  as  well  as  the  good  for  I  am  retum'd  to 
my  Philosophy."  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  not  indifferent 
to  the  repair  of  his  reputation.  He  wrote  a  long  personal 
appeal  to  Newcastle,  and  in  the  letter  enclosing  it  to  Clinton, 
suggested  that  it  was  perhaps  illegal  for  the  same  person  to  be 
at  once  chief  justice,  chancellor,  and  lieutenant-governor.^  It 
was  his  opinion,  however,  that  Delancey  would  make  Horsman- 
den  chief  justice,  and  then  actually  try  for  his  own  appoint- 
ment as  governor.  But  Clinton  assured  him  that  the  astute 
leader  of  the  opposition  would  never  part  with  certainty  for 
hope.  "I  have  lately  discovered,"  he  went  on,  *'the  Spring  of 
all  my  disappointments  in  England  by  Mr.  Charles  (upon 
whom  I  depended)  acting  in  confidence  with  Sr  Pter  Warren ; 
and  nothing  surprised  me  more  yesterday  than  the  Speaker 
asking  me  if  I  would  consent  to  the  giving  an  allowance  of  200 
pounds  to  an  Agent  in  England  for  the  Service  of  the  Province, 
and  named  Mr.  Charles  to  me  as  recommd  by  Sir  Peter." 

Another  spring  was  passing.  The  instructed  commissioners 
of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  had  been  ready  for  months 
to  meet  those  of  New  York;  the  crown  was  generous;  the 
assembly  voted  rangers  here,  blockhouses  there,  provisions  for 
some  other  place;  Colden  wrote  an  excellent  argument  for  the 
employment  of  the  Indians  in  French  wars.  Yet  no  one  had 
the  ability  or  the  desire  to  push  the  one  thing  worth  doing,  the 
capture  of  Crown  Point ;  and  Johnson  was  gloomy  at  his  people's 
idleness,  while  a  warm  invitation  they  had  just  received  for  a 
summer  visit  to  the  French  governor  made  counter-attractions 
immediately  necessary.  Colden  thought  the  general  indiffer- 
ence due  to  a  desire  to  throw  the  burden  of  failure  on  Clinton. 
"In  my  opinion,"  he  wrote,  "what  Chiefly  concerns  your  Ex- 
cellency at  present  is  to  remove  everything  which  has  been  laid 
to  your  charge.  ...     In  my  Opinion  it  is  impossible  to  save 

^  March  21,  1748. 


204  Cadwallader  Colden 

your  Excellency's  honour  if  Mr.  H — n  be  thought  worthy  to  be 
employ 'd  in  places  of  the  greatest  trust  after  the  publication  of 
such  libellous  papers  as  have  been  printed  &  of  which  no  one 
doubts  of  his  being  the  author.  Every  man  that  reads  them 
must  conclude  that  either  your  Excellency  or  the  Author  of 
these  papers  is  not  worthy  to  be  entrusted  in  any  pubHck  ser- 
vice. The  C,  J.^  by  his  behaviour  in  this  principally  must  give 
the  most  evident  proof  that  he  is  your  Excellency's  friend  or  that 
he  is  otherwise."  ^ 

Chnton  was  equally  desirous  of  seeing  Colden  reinstated.  He 
wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  who  had  superseded  Newcastle, 
of  the  trials  and  risks  Colden  had  undergone  in  the  service  of 
the  crown,'  and  he  wrote  this  time  untutored,  while  he  inter- 
ested himself  heartily  in  putting  the  surveyor  general's  office 
beyond  the  reach  of  his  enemies.  "I  really  beheve,"  Alex- 
ander wrote,*  "that  Govr  Clinton  is  a  very  friendly  man  and 
would  do  you  any  Service  that  Lay  in  his  power,  for  he  sent  Mr 
Catherwood  to  me  to  tell  me  so,  and  that  if  I  could  think  of  any- 
thing to  serve  you  he  would  readily  do  it,  and  mentioned  some- 
thing of  what  you  now  write." 

CUnton's  natural  good  nature  may  well  have  been  the  cause 
of  his  interest  in  Colden,  but  it  must  be  observed  that  on  Col- 
den's  departure  Delancey  had  shown  no  desire  to  return  to  the 
old  intimacy.  In  fact,  no  attempt  whatever  had  been  made  by 
the  opposition  to  fill  the  empty  place,  and  Chnton  felt  this  keenly. 
"Nothing  can  show  plainer  ye  good  intention  of  ye  Noble  As- 
sembly," he  grumbled,^  "then  their  last  days  vote  where  they 
appoint  a  Committee  to  assist  their  Speaker  &  correspond  with 
their  Agent  and  the  orders  then  made  (though  I  suppose  them 
to  be  ready)  I  believe  were  put  in  after  I  had  adjourn'd  them. 
I  have  sent  it  to  ye  D  Newcastle   &  Lords  of  Trade  desiring 

1  Chief  Justice  Delancey.  »  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.  VI,  428. 

2  April  9,  1748.  *  April  17.  »  May  16,  1718. 


A  Colonial  Politician  205 

they  will  receive  no  mamorial  or  representation  from  Mr. 
Charles  but  what  I  assent  to,  and  have  also  writt  to  Guerin 
(his  agent)  full  instructions  about  it,  I  have  also  given  him 
orders  to  go  to  Mr.  Stone  and  talk  it  over,  and  since  that  have 
given  Major  Rutherford  the  speech  I  made  to  ye  Assembly 
when  I  dissolved  them  the  second  time  to  prove  it  false  what 
they  have  said  that  we  alwayes  agreed  before  you  was  prime 
Minister  as  they  terme  you.  .  .  .  Mr.  Shirley  .  .  .  proposes 
to  come  to  New  York  in  June  to  go  with  me  to  Albany  which 
requires  some  consideration  &  our  meeting  and  a  good  occa- 
sion offers  at  present  you  being  appointed  as  president  of  ye 
Council  to  swear  me  as  Adml  of  the  White  as  you  will  see  by  the 
inclosed  .  .  .  this  will  touch  the  C.  J.  home  for  he  always 
used.  ...  I  had  some  design  of  coming  up  to  be  QuaUfied  at 
your  Son's  but  have  talked  with  Kennedy  since  &  we  think 
better  for  you  to  come  down  for  the  other  will  be  acting  as  it  was 
in  privitt,  I  have  therefore  told  him  but  I  have  received  no 
CompHments.  .  .  ." 

Clinton  was  not  to  meet  the  Indians  till  July  and  in  a  ten- 
days'  session  of  the  assembly  in  June  he  made  one  more  at- 
tempt to  arouse  some  enthusiasm  for  the  capture  of  the  famous 
French  fortress.  But  the  good  burghers  only  expressed  as- 
tonishment at  his  mentioning  such  a  thing  when  Massachusetts 
had  refused  to  ratify  the  agreement,  an  audacious  shifting  of 
responsibility  that  might  well  have  been  challenged.^  But  the 
governor  had  himself  well  in  hand,  and  an  obvious  endeavour  to 
pick  a  quarrel  that  followed  found  him  even  conciHating, 
"The  Chief  Justice  is  making  all  the  mischief  he  can,"  he  wrote 
Colden,  "as  you  may  see  by  that  Fool  Beekman's  motion  but  I 
have  Quelled  it  to  his  great  disappointment;  He  is  going  up 
and  Murray  and  of  course  for  no  good,  which  will  make  it  ab- 
solutely necessary  for  me  to  have  a  friend  to  advise  and  consult 

^  Journal  of  the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y.,  II,  241. 


2o6  Cadwallader  Colden 

with.  I  therefore  desire  you  will  be  ready  at  your  Son's  the 
Eighth  of  next  month.  Mr.  Kennedy  goes  up  and  must  insist 
on  yr  not  failing  me.  ..." 

VII 

The  real  success  of  an  Indian  conference  required  time  for 
its  proof,  though  the  presence  of  the  largest  number  of  Indians 
ever  seen  in  Albany  at  once  and  their  enthusiasm  at  the  brill- 
iancy of  the  king's  presents  was  at  least  gratifying.  But  the 
meeting  had  one  immediate  result.  Thrown  into  intimate 
personal  relations  for  the  first  time,  Colden  and  Shirley  frankly 
evinced  a  mutual  liking  and  respect,  which  Clinton  observed 
and  turned  to  his  own  profit.  Clinton's  interest  in  England 
was  good,  or  he  would  long  since  have  been  recalled.  But  it  was 
a  purely  personal  interest.  If  he  was  to  be  supported,  it  was 
from  favouritism,  esprit  de  corps,  family  feeling,  and  not  because 
he  was  right.  Shirley,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  reputation  for 
excellent  judgment,  and  his  confirmation  of  Clinton's  concep- 
tion of  the  case  would  count  for  much.  So  when  he  stopped  in 
New  York  for  a  few  days  on  his  way  home,  Clinton  asked  him, 
with  the  assistance  of  Colden,  to  make  an  inquiry  into  the 
gradual  revolution  that  was  being  worked  in  the  constitution 
of  the  province.  He  was  to  send  his  conclusions  to  the  min- 
istry, but  he  was  also  to  educe  from  his  investigation  a  plan  of 
action  for  Clinton,  which  that  weary  administrator  gladly  prom- 
ised to  follow.  Shirley,  however,  decided  later  that  it  would  be 
improper  to  send  his  report  directly  home  and  sent  it  to  Clinton 
instead,  with  authority  to  use  it  as  he  saw  fit.*  He  had  not 
found  that  the  population  of  the  most  cosmopolitan  of  colonies 
was  being  exorbitantly  taxed,  in  order  that  a  small  army  of  place- 
men might  gamble  and  drink  their  claret  at  Brooks',  though  a 

1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  p.  433  «'  seq. 


A  Colonial  Politician  207 

prominent  historian  affirms  this  as  the  typical  condition  of  the 
colonists/  Instead,  he  proved  from  the  records,  that  it  had  been 
the  custom  through  Cosby 's  time  to  grant  a  governor  in  the 
name  of  the  king  first  a  five  and  then  a  three  years'  support 
bill,  or  civil  Ust,  of  which  at  first  only  the  salaries  of  treasurer 
and  assemblymen  were  appropriated ;  that  then  the  whole  sum 
granted  was  appropriated,  but  informally,  by  a  vote ;  that  next 
it  had  been  granted  annually;  and  that  finally  it  had  been  ap- 
propriated in  the  bill  and  to  officers  by  name,  instead  of  to  the 
ofiices,  a  contingent  sum  being  reserved  for  the  assembly  only. 
And  this,  though  one  of  the  governor's  instructions  forbade  the 
expenditure  of  moneys  raised  by  the  assembly  in  any  other  way 
than  by  warrant  of  the  governor  and  council.  CHnton  had  dis- 
regarded it,  first  on  Delancey's  advice  and  then  through  neces- 
sity. But  now  that  the  war  was  over,  both  Shirley  and  Golden 
were  confident  that  with  the  cooperation  of  the  home  govern- 
ment the  old  order  might  be  restored,  though  Shirley  advised 
the  continued  appropriation  of  salaries  to  offices  by  the  assem- 
bly as  a  compromise.  Letters  asking  assistance  were  at  once 
despatched  to  England,  and,  pending  results,  Shirley  urged 
Clinton  to  recall  Colden,  summon  the  assembly,  and,  with 
Colden's  help,  tell  them  his  intentions. 

Though  a  man  of  action  rather  than  of  theory,  Shirley's 
conception  of  the  New  York  situation  was  as  academic  as 
Colden's  own.  Indeed,  he  apparently  ignored  its  two  chief 
factors,  the  unpopularity  of  the  surveyor  general  and  the  power 
of  the  Delanceys.  Old  Stephen  Delancey  had  arrived  in 
America  less  than  twenty  years  before  Colden,  but  by  his 
quickly  acquired  wealth  and  the  use  he  made  of  it,  by  his  com- 
manding personal  quahties,  by  his  own  marriage  and  the  mar- 
riages of  his  children,  he  had  established  before  his  death,  in 
1743,  an  unrivalled  influence.  This  influence  his  eldest  son 
^  Trevelyan's  "  American  Revolution." 


2o8  Cadwallader  Colden 

bade  fair  to  strengthen.  Debonair,  witty,  unscrupulous,  con- 
nected through  his  wife  and  his  sisters  and  brothers  with  ahnost 
every  man  of  prominence  in  the  colony,  he  knew  how  to  hold 
and  employ  them  all,  whether  they  admired  and  agreed,  or  dis- 
approved but  feared  his  tongue,  or  dreaded  the  social  hostiUty 
of  his  family.  And  what  he  could  not  get  by  tolerably  fair 
means  his  rake  of  a  brother,  "fat  OUver  Delancey,"  was  quite 
wilhng  to  get  by  any  means  whatever.  On  the  other  hand, 
Colden  had  returned  to  Scotland  to  marry,  and  though  he  had  a 
Delancey  son-in-law  himself,  besides  a  number  of  good  friends 
in  the  Delancey  set,  he  was  as  little  a  part  of  the  social  fabric 
of  the  town  as  though  he  had  never  come  back.  Stern  and  un- 
compromising in  demeanour,  he  kept  his  kindlier  manners  for 
his  intimates.  Never  having  aspired  to  lead  men,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  having  longed  to  drive  them,  he  had  neither  studied 
their  prejudices  nor  the  arts  of  persuasion.  He  could  never 
have  formed  a  party  had  he  tried,  and  he  never  dreamed  of 
stooping  to  such  an  attempt.  Nor  had  the  Clintons  helped  to 
make  a  social  background  for  the  administration.  Mrs.  Clin- 
ton, a  handsome,  frivolous  woman,  with  pretensions  to  poUtical 
influence,  had  no  taste  for  provincial  gayeties  and  preferred  the 
society  of  the  young  naval  officers  on  the  American  station  to 
exchanging  visits  with  the  v^ves  of  councillors  and  assembly- 
men. CUnton  himself  was  often  indisposed,  and  the  family 
spent  much  time  at  their  Flushing  country  house.  It  was  even 
said  that  the  governor  was  only  seen  in  church  three  or  four 
times  during  his  administration,  and  to  many  of  the  people  his 
face  was  unknown.  Such  indifference  was  resented  by  the 
sociable  population,  and  when  Oliver  Delancey  presumed  to 
court  an  affair  with  Mrs.  Clinton,  and  was  promptly  snubbed 
for  his  presumption,  his  outrageous  remarks  and  actions  failed 
to  rouse  the  indignation  they  deserved. 

Under  the   circumstances,   Shirley's   advice   seems   fatuous. 


A  Colonial  Politician  209 

But  he  only  knew  the  Golden  whose  political  acumen  won  the 
praise,  and  his  political  sufferings  the  sympathy,  of  the  keen- 
sighted  Franklin,  who,  indeed,  was  but  then  counting  on  a  cor- 
respondence with  him  as  not  the  least  of  the  pleasures  his  pro- 
posed retirement  from  active  Ufe  would  afford.  Golden 's  own 
reluctance  to  return  to  poUtics  was  considerable.^  But  the 
prospect  of  being  permitted  to  handle  assembly  aggressions  by 
the  method  he  had  advocated  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
proved  too  much  for  his  prudence,  and  when  Shirley  added  his 
sohcitations  to  GHnton's  he  yielded,  though  only  on  condition 
that  Shirley  share  the  responsibility  of  the  governor's  speech. 
Glinton,  also,  was  somewhat  nervous  at  the  prospect,  and  his 
letter  of  summons  is  not  distinctly  flattering.  "I  have  ad- 
journed the  Assembly  till  the  20th  Inst,"  he  wrote  Golden  on 
September  7,  1748,  "and  intend  for  a  fortnight  longer  .  .  .  , 
but  I  hope  you  will  come  sooner  to  settle  some  affaires  that  will 
be  very  necessary  before  Gatherwood  leaves  this  place.  .  .  . 
Our  London  ships  are  arrived  Poor  Majr  Ruth  went  home  in 
a  bad  time  for  himself  &  us,  just  upon  ye  peace  &  everybody 
going  abroad  or  on  partys  of  pleasure  Inclosed  is  Horsmanden's 
Petition.  I  think  I  never  read  a  more  fulsome  low  thing  in  my 
Ufe  it  will  be  well  to  have  some  answer  ready.  .  .  .  The  De- 
grading intirely  the  G.  J.  is  the  thing  I  find  Sticks  &  I  fear  will 
prove  absolutely  impracticable  unless  I  can  exhibit  &  maintain 
substantial  articles  of  accusation  agst  him,  and  the  more  so  as 
its  a  doubt  whether  ye  D  of  Bedfd  will  reverse  an  act  of  his 
Predecessor's  without  some  very  cogent  reason.  I  think  what 
we  have  is  quite  strong  but  if  we  can  make  it  stronger  ye  better 
...  for  which  reason  have  refused  absolutely  an  offer  of  a 
Man-of-War  to  come  to  New  York  to  carry  me  and  my  Family 
home.  ...  In  order  to  bring  things  to  some  pass  I  am 
beginning  to  make  a  thorough  change  in  ye  county  of  Albany. 

»  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  459. 


2IO  Cddwallader  C olden 

...  I  have  agreed  on  Johnson  for  Recorder  but  this  not  to 
be  known  yet.  ...  A  Hint  of  some  sort  would  not  be  amiss 
that  the  C  J  has  absolutely  refused  assisting  in  any  shape  which 
I  think  might  be  made  good  use  of  to  fling  ye  blame  on  him  for 
yr  coming  down.  ..." 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  session  was  a  repetition, 
with  no  enUvening  features,  of  former  encounters  between  ad- 
ministration and  assembly.  Viewed  impartially,  the  governor's 
speech  was  sufficiently  restrained  and  irritating  only  to  those 
who  could  read  between  the  Hues.  It  was  with  some  asperity, 
however,  that  the  consideration  of  Johnson's  accounts  was  re- 
quested, as  well  as  Canada's  failure  to  agree  to  fair  terms  for 
the  exchange  of  prisoners.  The  latest  advices  indicated  that 
such  was  the  demoraHzation  of  the  French  that  the  proposed 
attack  would  have  been  successful,  and  the  administration  was 
correspondingly  annoyed  at  those  who  were  responsible  for 
its  abandonment.  The  main  feature  of  the  speech,  however, 
was  a  demand  for  a  five  years'  civil  list  impersonally  appro- 
priated. In  making  it  a  reference  to  the  misleading  counsel 
Clinton  had  received  on  his  arrival  was  considered  necessary, 
but  this  was  scarcely  adequate  cause  for  the  passion  of  the 
address  voted  in  reply.  Chnton's  new  demands  were  flatly 
refused,  and  the  failure  of  the  Canadian  cartel  was  as  flatly 
charged  to  the  low  character  of  CUnton's  envoys.  Had  salaries 
been  granted  to  offices,  and  not  to  the  men  filHng  them, 
the  address  asserted,  the  governor  under  the  unhappy  in- 
fluence of  his  mentor,  would  have  filled  the  office  of  third 
justice  with  some  unworthy  person  in  place  of  a  gentleman 
of  experience  and  learning  (Horsmanden).  This  gentle- 
man, it  proceeded,  had  been  removed  for  no  misconduct 
whatever,  under  the  sole  influence  of  so  mean  and  despicable 
a  character  that,  as  the  general  assembly  had  occasionally 
remarked,    it  was   astonishing   the  governor   could  still   give 


A  Colonial  Politician  211 

him  his  confidence.  When  CHnton  told  the  assembly's  mes- 
sengers, who  had  come  to  ask  when  he  would  receive  this  docu- 
ment, that  he  had  not  yet  seen  a  copy  and  could  only  answer 
them  when  he  had  done  so,  they  gave  him  one  on  their  own 
responsibility.  But  its  perusal  called  forth  a  message  which, 
while  it  repeated  the  demands  of  the  speech,  expressed  the  re- 
fusal of  the  governor  to  receive  such  an  indecent  performance 
and  offered  to  do  its  authors  the  honour  of  referring  it  to  the 
king.  With  no  contingent  fund,  the  governor  said,  the  Cana- 
dian envoys  were  the  best  he  could  get  on  the  slender  credit  of 
the  assembly,  and  were  usually  men  obliged  to  go  north  on  busi- 
ness of  their  own.  "You  are  pleased,"  he  concluded,  "to  give 
the  Characters  of  some  Persons  that  I  have  had  better  Oppor- 
tunities to  know  than  you  can  have  had ;  however,  I  believe  that 
by  this  paper  [the  address,]  some  Men's  Characters  will  be  very 
evident  to  every  Man  who  shall  read  it  and  who  has  the  least 
Sense  of  Honour."  ^ 

Both  sides  were  now  in  excellent  form  and  the  assembly  re- 
torted without  delay.  It  was  irregular  and  unparliamentary, 
they  resolved,  to  send  a  copy  of  the  address  to  the  governor,  and 
he  had  no  right  to  insist  on  it,  for  it  was  their  right  to  see  him  on 
public  business.  When  he  denied  them  access,  it  was,  there- 
fore, a  violation  of  his  right  and  contrary  to  his  solemn  promise 
to  the  speaker  made  on  his  presentation.  Indeed,  it  not  only 
tended  to  destroy  intercourse  between  governor  and  people,  but 
to  subvert  the  constitution,  and  he  who  had  advised  it  was  an 
enemy  to  the  general  assembly  and  to  their  constituents.  This 
was  the  language  of  principle,  but  it  was  in  the  voice  of  faction, 
and,  however  necessary  might  be  its  enunciation  in  the  ears  of  a 
people  who  were  to  be  self-governing,  it  does  not  ring  true. 
Despite  the  governor's  refusal  to  receive  it,  moreover,  the  ad- 
dress had  been  entered  on  the  minutes,  and  this  appeal  to  the 

1  Journal  of  the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y.,  II,  248. 


212  Cadwallader  C olden 

people,  when  he  had  offered  to  make  the  king  the  umpire,  was 
especially  attacked  in  his  answer  to  the  resolutions.  It  was  his 
duty,  he  further  observed,  to  preserve  the  king's  authority, 
and  when  they  violated  the  rules  of  decency  they  must  bear  the 
consequence.  Besides,  their  right  of  access  was  not  universal, 
but  conditional  on  the  interest  of  king  and  public,  of  which  he 
had  a  right  to  judge  as  well  as  they.  And  then,  although  no 
disposition  of  the  year's  revenue  granted  to  the  king  had  been 
made,  failing  which  not  a  penny  could  be  touched,  he  pro- 
rogued them  to  the  spring. 

Not  much,  certainly,  had  been  gained  for  the  prerogative,  yet 
the  very  fact  that  Golden  had  been  recalled  had  made  Delancey 
uneasy,  and  losing  for  the  moment  his  easy  command  of  the 
situation  he  had  attacked  him  personally  and  with  the  bitterness 
of  an  uncertain  position.  On  the  24th  of  September,  just  before 
the  assembly  met,  Clinton  had  announced  in  council  that  the 
provisions  for  the  frontier  forces  would  last  but  a  week  longer, 
and  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  if  more  were  not  provided 
by  that  time,  the  soldiers  would  disband.  When  this  informa- 
tion was  conveyed  to  the  speaker,  he  said  it  was  too  soon  to 
break  up  the  army,  and  several  assemblymen  in  town  agreeing 
with  him,  the  council  advised  the  continuance  of  the  rations 
until  October  21st.  Clinton,  accordingly,  sent  his  private  sec- 
retary to  a  commissioner  of  provisions  to  request  the  necessary 
orders  to  the  commissioners  in  Albany.  The  commissioner,  a 
Mr.  Richards,  was  reported  to  have  acquiesced,  but  in  a  few 
days  word  came  from  Albany  that  the  commissioners  had  re- 
fused to  issue  more  provisions,  as  they  had  received  no  orders 
from  New  York.  Mr.  Banyer,  the  deputy-secretary  of  the 
province,  was  sent  to  ask  an  explanation.  Mr.  Richards  said 
that  he  had  never  promised  anything,  and  that,  on  consultation, 
his  colleague  had  refused  to  consent  to  any  action  not  men- 
tioned in  the  act  appointing  them.     He  also  said,  in  reply  to  a 


A  Colonial  Politician  213 

question  from  Mr.  Banyer,  that  he  would  disregard  even  a 
written  order  from  the  governor,  as  it  was  not  worth  while  to 
send  such  a  small  cargo  up  the  river  anyhow.  This  conversa- 
tion Mr.  Banyer  reported  to  the  council  in  detail,  and  had 
scarcely  finished  when  Golden  moved  that  Mr.  Richards 's 
refusal  be  put  on  record.  But  Delancey  interrupted  with  a 
motion  for  the  transcription  of  the  whole  report,  and  Golden 
not  supporting  his  own  motion,  it  was  lost. 

A  few  days  later  still,  the  council  were  considering  a  letter 
from  Glinton  to  the  governor  of  Ganada.  A  paragraph  seemed 
obscure  to  the  chief  justice,  and  he  asked  if  any  one  present  could 
explain  it.  This  Golden  attempted  to  do,  but  its  meaning  still 
proved  baffling,  and  Golden  was  moving  that  the  clerk  make  it 
intelligible  when  Delancey  exclaimed  significantly,  "We  must 
guard  against  misrepresentation."  Golden  demanded  his 
meaning.  Delancey  said  he  felt  his  warning  necessary  because 
"Mr.  Golden  had  discovered  a  most  flagitious  and  wicked  mind 
in  Gouncil"  on  the  day  when  Mr.  Banyer  had  reported  his  inter- 
view with  Mr.  Richards.  Golden  asked  that  this  charge  be 
put  on  record.  Delancey,  in  what  Golden  afterward  called  a 
threatening  manner,  repeated  his  assertion  and  offered  to  v^ite 
it  out  at  once  or  bring  it  to  Golden  the  next  day.  A  few  more 
hostile  expressions  were  exchanged,  and  the  meeting  broke  up. 
But  the  controversy  raged  on.  Golden  appealed  to  the  gov- 
ernor to  require  an  answer  from  Delancey,  and  intimated  that 
this  was  not  the  freedom  of  debate  of  which  the  instructions 
spoke.  The  governor  ordered  Delancey  to  reply.  Delancey 
responded  by  criticising  the  management  of  the  verbal  duel  by 
the  government.  He  had  not,  he  said,  been  summoned  to  the 
council  the  day  Golden's  memorial  was  presented,  so  that  the 
valuable  time  of  a  Supreme  Gourt  justice  had  been  spent  in 
writing  what  might  have  been  spoken  as  well ;  he  had  been  told 
to  make  his  answer  to  the  governor  instead  of  to  the  governor  in 


214  Cadwallader  C olden 

council,  as  was  proper ;  the  council  had  not  advised  this  order 
to  him,  and  he  was  not  obliged  to  accuse  himself.  He  did  say, 
however,  in  order  "to  show  his  willing  temper,"  that  when  Mr. 
Banyer  was  describing  Mr.  Richards 's  refusal,  Mr.  Golden  inter- 
rupted, "That  is  enough,  set  that  down,"  he  himself  protesting 
"That  is  a  very  unfair  method,  to  take  down  part  of  a  man's 
testimony."  As.  for  his  inference  from  this,  the  chief  justice 
begged  leave  to  state  that,  as  he  had  a  very  mean  opinion  of 
Mr.  Golden,  and  as  his  character  was  notorious,  he  had 
imagined  his  remark  to  spring  from  depravity  of  heart,  and 
was  filled  with  just  indignation,  the  expression  of  which  he 
failed  to  see  had  in  any  way  affected  the  freedom  of  debate. 

In  his  reply  to  this  plain-speaking  document,  Golden  said,  with 
truth,  that  Delancey  had  made  an  issue  of  unimportant  details ; 
that  as  the  case  was  without  precedent,  errors  were  probable; 
but  that  it  would  have  been  clearly  improper  to  summon  De- 
lancey or  himself  as  judges  in  a  case  where  both  were  parties. 
The  point  was,  had  Delancey  justified  himself  ?  Had  it  been 
decent  to  obtrude  his  "mean  opinion"  right  or  wrong?  If  it 
had.  Golden  said,  "it  might  be  easy  to  retort  by  giving  an  opinion 
of  Mr.  Ghief  Justice."  He  did  not  know,  he  concluded,  what 
Delancey  meant  by  his  epithets,  but  he  did  know  that  he  had 
endeavoured  to  lead  a  life  giving  no  just  cause  of  offence ;  that 
his  chief  pleasure  had  been  to  employ  his  abilities  for  the  good 
of  mankind ;  that  the  sole  cause  of  Delancey 's  resentment  was 
the  transfer  of  Glinton's  confidence;  that  he  himself,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  never  resented  Delancey's  temporary  enjoy- 
ment of  that  honour,  though  it  was  his  by  right ;  and  that,  once 
his,  he  had  never  used  it  to  the  hurt  of  any  man,  but  had  put 
the  best  construction  possible  on  Delancey's  behaviour.  While 
the  final  statement  was  oratorical  Ucense  or  an  unconscious 
tribute  to  his  own  best  intentions,  it  is  nevertheless  evident  that, 
had  Delancey  been  able  to  indict  Golden  for  any  concrete  offence, 


A  Colonial  Politician  215 

he  would  have  done  so.  But  he  doubtless  deemed  his  inability 
to  do  this  his  greatest  misfortune,  and  Golden  could  surely  hope 
to  gain  nothing  from  his  enemies  by  proving  his  own  virtue. 
He  still  hoped  for  official  approval,  however,  and  as  official  ap- 
proval was  to  him  the  final  test  of  service,  he  went  up  to  Coldeng- 
ham  for  the  winter  less  depressed  by  his  position  than  might 
seem  possible. 

VIII 

One  thing  was  certain.  It  was  more  necessary  than  ever  to 
wring  some  expression  of  opinion  from  the  ministry,  if  the 
administration  was  to  accomplish  its  purpose.  But  the  last 
ship  of  the  year,  like  its  fellows,  had  come  in  without  an  official 
word.  Golden  had  not  waited  for  this,  however,  and  once  more 
had  besought  Bedford  in  his  own  behalf,  because,  he  said,  the 
governor  feared  the  cry  of  favouritism  that  would  go  up  if  he 
himself  should  speak  for  Golden.^  This  he  soon  did,  neverthe- 
less, and  Delancey's  attack  and  Golden 's  fair  record  were  touched 
up  with  friendly  zeal.  He  was  sure,  he  added,  that  it  had  never 
been  intended  that  he  should  dehver  Delancey's  commission 
if  he  considered  it  against  the  public  interest,  and  he  proposed 
to  hold  it  back  for  instructions.  Golden  had  urged  more  radi- 
cal action.  It  was  his  plan  that  Glinton  should  summon  the 
chief  justice,  give  him  his  commission,  swear  him  in  as  lieu- 
tenant-governor, and  then  suspend  him,  and  he  had  considered 
every  emergency,  including  Delancey's  possible  refusal  to  give 
the  governor  his  opportunity. 

"Your  Excellency  must  have  observ'd,"  he  wrote,  "how 
difficult  it  is  to  get  his  Majesty's  ministers  to  think  of  plantation 
affairs  ...  &  therefore  that  they  may  not  come  to  any  determi- 
nation in  a  long  time,  which  must  produce  greater  inconvenience 
to  your  Excellency  than  any  termination  whatsoever  even  the 

1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  469. 


2i6  Cadwallader  C olden 

contrary  to  your  Excellency's  expectations.  For  this  reason 
may  it  not  be  proper  to  do  what  is  in  your  power  to  do  because, 
as  Knowles  observ'd,  it  will  be  easier  for  your  Excellency  to  get 
a  thing  don  to  be  approved  than  to  get  others  to  do  it.  And  it 
will  oblige  the  Ministry  to  take  the  matters  Your  Excellency 
has  laid  before  them  immediately  under  consideration  or  if  they 
do  not  it  will  be  a  tacit  approbation  of  what  Your  Excellency 
has  done.  ...  If  Your  Excellency  do  not  do  this,  will  it  not 
be  naturally  askt  what  is  the  reason  that  you  are  affray 'd  to  do 
what  is  in  your  power  to  do  and  which  you  represent  as  so  neces- 
sary to  be  done.  .  .  .  May  not  this  give  some  credit  to  the  vile 
calumnies  which  they  otherwise  could  not  obtain?"  ^ 

Clinton  longed  to  follow  these  suggestions,  but  he  quailed 
before  the  possible  consequences.  "I  do  assure  you,"  he  re- 
plied, "I  shall  do  what  we  had  under  consideration  before  you 
left  me  and  have  given  Catherwood  orders  abt  it  in  case  I  do  it 
that  they  may  not  be  Surprized,  &  have  told  him  to  let  them 
know  I  did  it  affraid,  if  any  accident  happened  to  me,  of  the  ill 
treatment  my  Wife  of  course  must  expect  from  him ;  before  I  do 
it  it  will  be  very  proper  to  have  a  letter  ready  for  ye  D  Bedford, 
Lords  of  trade  &  President  of  ye  Council  with  reasons  of  so 
doing  When  I  do  it  I  must  expect  to  meet  with  all  ye  opposi- 
tion &  Quirks  that  the  Law  can  invent  to  puzzell  things  there- 
fore it  will  require  that  I  shoud  have  upon  ye  spot  all  ye  Assist- 
ance that  I  may  want.  I  must  desire  to  hear  from  you  as  soon 
as  you  can  for  as  Mr.  Alexander  is  out  of  town  I  have  none  — 
Catherwood  is  but  just  now  going  on  board.  .  .  ."  "I  expected 
you  would  have  said  something  in  answer  to  ye  latter  part  of  my 
letter,"  he  complained  on  the  3d  of  January,  1749.  "Hope  you 
are  considering  what  is  proper  &  to  guard  against  the  worst 
especially  any  Quirks  of  ye  Law,  .  .  .  They  grow  very  inso- 
lent &  particularly  OUver  that  I  sent  a  Message  to  ye  Attony 

*  December  8,  1 748. 


A  Colonial  Politician  217 

Genl  ye  other  day  that  in  Case  he  did  not  prosecute  him 
as  far  as  he  could  carry  it  upon  my  order  I  woud  turn  him  out 
but  I  am  at  a  great  Loss  how  to  fix  it  properly  that  I  may  be  in 
ye  right  in  order  to  push  things  to  as  great  length  as  in  my 
power." 

Colden,  on  the  other  hand,  began  to  see  some  reason  for  en- 
couragement. A  certain  Colonel  Herrick,  who  had  been,  as 
the  puzzled  governor  insisted,  "as  violent  in  the  Assembly  as 
any,"  had  actually  broken  with  the  faction,  and  Colden  was  so 
convinced  that  he  was  "a  sincere  convert"  that  he  induced  Clin- 
ton to  make  him  a  county  judge.  "I  am,"  he  wrote  happily, 
"pleased  to  find  that  those  persons  who  so  very  lately  thought 
they  had  an  universal  influence  are  brought  so  near  upon  a  par 
with  their  neighbours.  ...  As  to  matters  of  Law  or  Quirks  in 
the  Law  I  cannot  advise  you  otherwise  than  this  that  you  would 
please  to  send  Dr  Ayscough  or  Captn  Clinton  to  Mr  Alexander 
to  desire  him  to  come  to  you  some  day  before  noon  that  you 
want  his  advice  &  opinion  in  a  matter  of  Law  &  I  cannot  doubt 
of  his  waiting  on  Yr.  Excellcy.  ..." 

But  Clinton  was  not  to  be  put  off  hke  this.  Though  the 
proclamation  of  peace  had  reached  the  colony  in  the  late  sum- 
mer of  1748,  no  copy  of  the  treaty,  no  instructions,  had  followed 
it,  and  the  governors  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts  Bay 
must  fence  with  the  dexterous  governor  of  New  France  as  best 
they  could.  The  Frenchman's  aim  was  to  force  the  Iroquois 
to  go  to  Montreal  to  make  a  separate  treaty,  as,  indeed,  had  been 
customary,  and  to  this  end  he  sought  to  circumvent  CUnton's 
efforts  to  exchange  or  purchase  those  who  were  taken  prisoners  in 
the  war,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not  British  subjects.  Nor 
was  he  unaware  of  the  factional  fight  in  New  York,  where  the 
assembly  was  playing  into  his  hands  by  making  it  as  difficult 
as  possible  to  secure  skilful  envoys.  In  questions  of  this  sort 
Colden  was  invaluable  and  Clinton  tried  again. 


2i8  Cadwallader  C olden 

"I  received  a  letter  from  Coll  Johnson  this  morning,"  he 
wrote  early  in  February,  "he  wants  to  know  abt  getting  ye 
Prisoners  from  the  English  Indians.  I  thought  that  part  had 
been  settled.  .  .  .  We  must  expect  to  meet  with  all  the  rubs 
they  can  give  with  Malice  [  on  ]  what  we  wrote  to  ye  Govemr 
of  Canada.  Therefore,  I  think  it  will  be  highly  necessary  for 
you  to  come  downe  immediately.  ...  I  therefore  don't  send 
for  Alexander  till  you  come  down  .  .  .  Mrs.  Clinton  with  her 
compliments  thinks  that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  you  to 
come  In  short,  Oliver  has  frightened  ye  poor  Mayor  that  I 
can't  get  a  Sight  of  him  that  we  are  only  Two  and  two  at  present 
in  Council  and  their  wants  a  little  Spirit  to  keep  up  theirs  for 
Self  Interest  prevails  more  than  I  could  ever  expected  to  have 
seen.  ...  I  have  this  moment  an  account  bro't  me  that  OUver 
is  going  to  England,  let  him  go.  I  will  answer  for  it  that  I 
have  done  his  business.  ..." 

It  was  nearly  time,  too,  for  the  assembly  which  was  to  meet 
in  March,  but  Colden  was  immovable.  "I  am  much  concern'd 
that  the  present  state  of  the  weather  in  this  season  of  the  year 
is  such  that  it  renders  it  impossible  for  me  to  shew  my  obedience 
to  Yr  Excellency's  desires,"  he  replied.^  "The  express  that 
brought  yours  .  .  .  never  found  such  difficulty  in  travelling  with 
continual  danger  of  his  horse  tumbling,  besides  this  I  have  been 
so  much  in  a  warm  room  this  winter  that  I  cannot  expose  myself 
to  the  cold  lodgings  that  cannot  be  avoided  travilling,  together 
with  the  cold  in  the  day  without  the  greatest  danger  to  my  health 
at  an  age  when  I  am  become  too  sensible  of  the  impressions  of 
cold  &  therefore  I  must  beg  your  Excellency  to  excuse  my 
waiting  on  you  till  such  time  as  I  can  do  it  by  water  when  I  can 
take  conveniences  with  me  to  guard  against  the  cold.  ...  In 
the  mean  time  I  shall  endeavour  to  give  my  opinion  in  the  mat- 
ters which  are  the  subjects  of  Yr.  Excellency's  letter  in  such 

^  February  9,  1748/9. 


A    Colonial  Politician  219 

manner  as  to  make  up  as  far  as  possible  any  inconvenience  that 
may  attend  my  absence.  I  am  of  opinion  that  Coll  Johnson 
must  take  the  care  of  procuring  the  Indian  prisoners  for  several 
reasons,  i.  No  one  is  so  capable  of  doing  it.  2.  No  other  I 
suspect  will  be  willing  to  undertake  it.  3,  If  any  other  .  .  . 
fails  it  may  occasion  blame  in  employing  another.  I  think  like- 
wise that  ...  as  he  undertook  the  management  of  the  Indians 
during  the  war  it  is  his  duty.  .  .  .  But  I  suspect  the  greatest 
difficulty  .  .  .  arises  from  the  expense  .  .  .  and  .  .  .  some 
may  think  it  necessary  to  call  the  Assembly.  But  I  am  of 
opinion  there  is  no  necessity.  .  .  .  Your  Excelly  has  informed 
the  King's  ministers  that  you  cannot  meet  the  Assembly  of  this 
Province  till  you  know  their  resolutions  on  the  matter  you  have  in 
dispute  with  the  Assembly  ...  for  till  his  Majesty's  pleasure 
shall  be  known  it  may  be  difficult  or  perhaps  impossible  for  you 
to  behave  consistently  with  yourself  or  the  orders  you  may  after- 
ward receive  from  the  Crown.  We  know  not  upon  what  terms 
the  prisoners  are  to  be  sent  back  perhaps  it  may  not  be  entirely 
upon  the  Conditions  Yr.  Excelly  proposed  or  perhaps  they  may 
not  all  be  relieved  from  the  Indians,  in  both  which  cases  delay 
is  reasonable.  Supose  the  terms  Yr.  Excelly  proposed  .  .  . 
are  entirely  compUed  with,  your  Excelly  must  be  allow'd  some 
time  to  treat  with  the  Indians,  and  in  case  you  should  fail,  this 
can  but  very  little  affect  the  affairs  of  this  Government  after  all 
our  prisoners  shall  be  released  without  which  you  are  under  no 
obUgation.  It  can  only  occasion  a  complaint  from  the  Govner 
of  Canada.  .  .  .  Several  expedients  may  likewise  be  thought 
of  to  make  matters  easy.  The  Indians  may  be  tried  how  far 
they  will  be  satisfied  with  promises  of  future  rewards  or  other 
Uke  methods.  .  .  .  Mr.  Lydius  may  be  sent  back  to  engage 
the  Relations  of  those  who  have  been  prisoners  in  Canada  to 
advance  money  for  the  release  of  the  French  who  are  in  the 
hands  of  our  Indians  as  being  a  condition  on  which   their 


220  Cadwallader  Colden 

relations  are  to  be  released  and  that  they  ought  to  trust  the  As- 
sembly for  the  repayment  of  this  money.  If  this  be  resolved 
on  Mr.  Lydius  must  keep  it  entirely  secret  otherwise  they  who 
endeavour  to  embroil  affairs  will  certainly  defeat  it.  .  .  .  As  to 
what  Your  Excellency  may  think  it  necessary  to  write  to  Eng- 
land at  this  time  I  shall  enclose  a  sketch  of  my  thoughts  thereon 
in  the  words  which  I  think  may  be  proper  to  be  used  but  with 
submission,  however,  to  what  alterations  or  abridgements  which 
Your  Excellency  shall  think  proper.  On  this  occasion  I  must 
take  the  liberty  again  to  put  Your  Excellency  in  mind  not  to 
direct  your  letters  to  Mr.  Catherwood  only  least  he  should  mis- 
carry nor  do  I  think  it  prudent  to  put  the  whole  of  your  affairs 
in  the  power  of  one  man  to  suppress  what  he  pleases.  .  .  .  Yr. 
Excellency  will  see  from  the  enclosed  Sketch  that  there  is  a  brief 
recapitulation  of  what  has  been  formerly  said,  this  is  don  with 
design  to  keep  things  in  memory  &  from  a  belief  that  great 
men  do  not  readily  turn  to  former  papers  if  reference  were  made 
to  them  &  different  expressions  of  the  same  thing  may  some- 
times be  of  use.  .  .  ." 

This  refusal  to  come  to  New  York,  for  some  time  at  least, 
seemed  final,  yet  little  more  than  a  week  later,  the  governor's 
new  private  secretary  renewed  the  attack.^  "His  Excellency 
being  much  indisposed,"  he  wrote,  "So  orders  me  to  acquaint 
you  that  Mr.  De  Ligneris  &  23  others  with  Captn  Stoddart  are 
come  down  &  only  two  of  our  prisoners.  .  .  .  The  Govr  of 
Canada  is  still  inflexible,  and  has  sent  this  Embassy  to  treat 
for  Exchange  of  Prisoners.  On  the  news  of  the  Frenchmen 
coming  down,  some  malicious  persons  made  it  their  Business 
to  insinuate  that  not  one  farthing  would  be  paid  by  the  Assem- 
bly, so  that  I  was  forced  to  engage  for  his  Excellency  for  the 
payment.  By  this  you  will  observe  the  absolute  necessity  [of] 
your  Advice  &  Assistance  at  this  Critical  Juncture,  for  in  that 

1  February  18,  1748/9. 


A   Colonial   Politician  221 

they  cannot  make  a  Council,  Coll  Moore  and  the  Mayor  being 
both  ill.  .  .  ." 

Current  events  were  not,  indeed,  enlivening.  A  few^  days 
before  OUver  Delancey — already  under  nominal  prosecution  by 
the  crown — and  some  of  his  friends,  all  in  disguise  and  with 
blackened  faces,  had  broken  into  the  house  of  a  respectable 
Dutch  Jew,  smashed  the  windows,  flung  open  the  doors,  and 
pulled  everything  to  pieces,  because  OUver  was  pleased  to  de- 
clare that  the  man's  wife  looked  Uke  Mrs.  Clinton.  Yet  three 
of  the  best  lawyers  in  the  province  refused  to  take  the  case,  and 
advised  the  Jew  not  to  fight  it  out  on  account  of  the  position  of 
the  defendants.  On  another  occasion  OHver  had  met  a  poor 
man  on  the  road,  ordered  him  to  stand  still,  and  when  he  hesi- 
tated to  obey,  had  broken  his  head.^  Yet  the  man  had  no  more 
success  with  the  lawyers  than  the  Jew.  Indeed,  with  an  infirm 
and  indifferent  attorney  general,  a  chief  justice  leading  a  faction, 
and  a  second  judge  devoted  to  his  chief,  there  was  reason  to  fear 
that  justice  would  often  yield  to  expediency.  There  was,  be- 
sides, something  pitiful  about  the  governor's  position  that 
Colden  was  not  fitted  by  nature  to  appreciate.  When  the  Clin- 
ton administration  was  only  a  memory.  Colonel  Choat,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, said  to  WiUiam  Smith,  of  New  York:  "Mr.  CUnton 
was  of  all  others  the  man  we  would  have  wished  for  our  Governor, 
for  he  would  have  done  anything  for  you  within  his  commission 
for  his  bottle  and  a  present."  ^  Yet  this  man,  to  whom  argu- 
ment was  a  horror,  was  obliged  to  endure  a  war  of  words  waged 
in  his  name  and  round  his  head  for  years,  until  he  was  insulted 
in  the  streets,  while  even  his  personal  sufferings  met  no  recogni- 
tion but  the  prescription :  "  Give  him  plenty  of  wine  and  Colden, 
and  he'll  come  out  all  right."  He  was  sick  of  it  all,  but  he 
could  only  call  once  more  for  the  adviser  who  was  quite  likely 

1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  471. 

2  Smith's  "  History  of  New  York,"  II,  158. 


222  Cadwallader  C olden 

to  make  him  fight,  as  he  himself  shrank  from  fighting.  His 
summons  was  also  once  more  ineffective.  "The  cold  is  so 
severe  that  I  cannot  be  one  hour  in  it,"  Golden  told  the 
anxious  governor  on  February  19th,  saying  farther  on  in  the 
same  letter:  "Your  Excellency  in  all  publick  treaties  will 
consider  the  Interest  of  the  Nation  in  general  more  than  of 
this  Province  in  particular  &  much  more  than  the  Sollicita- 
tions  of  private  persons.  ...  I  am  told  that  when  Oliver 
was  at  Esopus  he  gave  out  the  Assembly  was  to  be  dissolv'd 
and  solicited  the  election  of  particular  persons.  He  brought 
up  all  the  songs  and  factious  papers  with  him  read  them  in 
the  tavern  &  talked  as  he  uses  to  do.  .  .  .  I  know  not  what 
has  put  the  apprehensions  of  a  Dissolution  into  their  heads 
unless  (as  is  given  out)  they  find  that  their  interest  lessens  in 
the  City  of  New  York.  If  there  were  reason  to  hope  that  one 
man  in  the  city  could  be  removed  &  another  in  Queen's  County, 
I  would  hold  up  both  hands  for  a  dissolution.  Nay  if  we  were 
sure  of  a  hearty  strugle  in  the  city  tho'  nothing  should  be  carried 
I  should  not  be  displeased  with  it.  .  .  ."  And  again  Ayscough 
writes,  this  time  on  the  3d  of  March,  when  the  winter  was  surely 
near  its  end:  "His  Excellency  .  .  .  is  much  concerned  that  you  are 
so  much  indisposed,  .  .  .  that  you  could  not  have  taken  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  River  being  open  to  have  come  down.  .  .  .  Mr. 
De  Lignerises  party  have  been  now  here  sixteen  days,  &  no 
progress  made  ...  at  a  great  expense  to  somebody.  Where 
it  will  fall  I  can  not  determine;  &  you  may  naturally  suppose 
the  Malicious  grumbling,  carefully  propagated  by  the  designing 
Faction,  who  will  lose  no  opportunity  to  calumniate  his  Ex- 
cellency's measures.  Therefore  ...  he  orders  me  to  press  in 
the  strongest  terms  I  can  possibly  do  it,  that  if  your  health  will 
permit  which  I  hope  in  God  it  will  that  you  would  immediately 
take  the  very  first  offer  to  embark  for  New  York,  for  I  must  beg 
leave  to  repeat  it  to  you,  that  I  am  certain  you  were  never  more 


A  Colonial  Politician  223 

wanted;  for  which  reason  I  earnestly  beg  you  for  God's  sake 
not  to  fail.  .  .  .  Last  Tuesday  his  Excelly  prorogued  the  As- 
sembly till  the  second  Tuesday  in  April.  ..." 

Nevertheless,  Golden  stayed  in  Ulster  and  the  assembly  was 
prorogued  once  more.  And  though  early  in  May  Ayscough 
wrote  joyously  that  Gatherwood  had  announced  the  recall  of 
Delancey's  commission,  the  approval  of  Horsmanden's  suspen- 
sion, the  rebuke  of  the  assembly,  the  presentation  of  a  memorial 
to  the  king  by  the  ministry  in  favour  of  Governor  Glinton,  and  the 
arrival  of  Sir  Peter  Warren  on  the  next  ship,  so  disgusted  that  he 
had  resigned  his  commission  as  admiral,  some  one  had  been  too 
sanguine  and  the  news  was  never  confirmed.  In  fact,  there  was 
no  news  of  any  kind,  and  it  was  in  desperation  rather  than  from 
any  hope  of  success  that  the  assembly  was  at  length  permitted 
to  organize  in  the  last  week  of  June. 

As  it  happened,  the  town  was  already  in  a  state  of  vast  excite- 
ment. Three  days  before  Oliver  Delancey,  Dr.  Golhoun,  one 
of  the  governor's  friends,  and  others,  had  been  sitting  in  the  tap- 
room of  a  tavern  in  the  dockward  when  Golhoun  and  Delancey 
began  to  quarrel.  Delancey  said  he  had  objections  even  to 
being  in  the  same  room  with  any  one  so  dependent  on  the  gov- 
ernor, and  then  flung  a  whole  vocabulary  of  epithets  at  Glinton, 
and,  Golhoun  remonstrating,  flung  them  all  over  again  at  Glin- 
ton's  friends,  begged  any  one  or  every  one  to  report  his  words 
to  the  governor,  ofiFered  bribes  to  any  one  who  would,  and  told 
Golhoun  that  he  expected  to  repeat  his  performance  in  all  com- 
panies for  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  next  went  home,  sent  a  mes- 
senger for  Golhoun,  got  him  into  his  house  alone,  assaulted  him, 
and  was  just  prevented  from  killing  him  outright.  Golhoun 
finally  recovered,  but,  during  the  session  of  the  assembly  and  for 
months  thereafter,  the  problem  of  dealing  with  Delancey  in- 
creased the  burden  of  the  administration.  The  examination  of 
witnesses  took  the  attention  of  the  council  from  more  important 


224  Cadwallader  C olden 

matters,  and  Clinton  even  hoped  that  popular  disapproval  of 
one  brother  would  diminish  the  prestige  of  the  other ;  when  the 
chief  justice,  with  his  usual  finesse,  openly  declared  his  abhor- 
rence of  Oliver's  behaviour.* 


IX 

Meanwhile  the  assembly  had  been  opened  in  a  manner  that 
did  credit  to  both  Clinton  and  Colden,  the  latter  of  whom  was 
again  commanding  the  government  forces  in  person.  The  mem- 
bers were  presented  with  a  copy  of  that  part  of  the  commission 
and  instructions  concerning  government  finance,  and  then  the 
governor,  in  a  dignified  speech,  asked  them  to  act  accordingly 
without  a  reference  to  any  other  subject.  The  commission 
declared  it  to  be  the  royal  pleasure  that  the  public  income 
should  be  issued  on  the  governor's  warrant,  given  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  his  council,  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  the  fifteenth  instruction  directed  that  no  excise  act  should 
run  for  less  than  a  year,  and  that  all  other  supply  and  support 
bills  should  be  indefinite,  except  for  temporary  services ;  while 
the  thirty-second  instruction  was  a  practical  repetition  of  the 
financial  clause  in  the  commission,  adding  permission,  however,  to 
the  assembly  to  examine  the  accounts  of  revenue  raised  by  virtue 
of  their  acts.^  The  administration,  therefore,  had  taken  an  im- 
pregnable position.  But  it  was  not  held  long.  Colden  literally 
could  not  see  what  he  considered  to  be  the  law  broken  without 
a  protest,  even  though  the  protest  was  certain  to  be  ineffective, 
even  though  it  obscured  the  main  issue  and  provided  the  oppo- 
sition with  a  grievance.  Therefore,  when  the  assembly  offered 
to  present  their  address,  the  governor  refused  to  receive  it  until 
he  had  seen  a  copy.     The  assembly  resolved  unanimously  that 

^  Proceedings  of  the  Executive  Council;  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  513-515. 
"  Journal,  etc.,  II,  250. 


A  Colonial  Politician  225 

he  had  no  right  to  insist  on  previous  copies.  The  governor 
retorted  that  the  king  always  had  copies  of  parliamentary 
addresses,  and  that  the  practice  had  been  adopted  in  the  colony ; 
that  he  had  a  right  to  know,  because  he  had  authority  to  restrain ; 
and  that,  since  their  messengers  were  with  him  before  ten  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  when  they  had  not  met  to  consider  the  address 
until  after  nine,  he  had  good  reason  to  suspect  that  he  was  to 
be  surprised  into  receiving  something  improper.  And  then, 
having  said  all  this,  he  admitted  that  he  had  seen  a  copy  in  the 
minutes  brought  him  by  the  clerk  and  gave  them  permission  to 
present  it.^ 

This  was  bad  management  indeed,  for  the  assembly  had  shown 
their  weakness  by  disregarding  the  governor's  one  point,  the 
irregularity  of  their  financial  system.  Instead,  asserting  gen- 
erally that  the  instructions  were  more  ancient  than  modern,  and 
that  even  in  their  antique  provisions  nothing  could  be  found 
about  a  grant  of  revenue  for  five  years,  they  vowed  that  "the 
faithful  representatives  of  the  people"  would  never  yield  more 
than  an  annual  support  bill,  while  they  asked  an  explanation  of 
the  delay  in  exchanging  the  prisoners  of  war  and  blamed  the 
governor  for  proroguing  them  the  previous  autumn,  before  they 
had  applied  the  revenue.  The  message  sent  in  reply  is  one  of 
Golden 's  most  characteristic  productions,  from  its  opening  com- 
parison between  the  governor's  charity  and  the  assembly's  vin- 
dictiveness,  to  its  closing  exhortation  to  contrast  the  lot  of  the 
English  colonist  with  that  of  the  Roman  or  Dutch,  and  then 
give  thanks.  The  governor  asked  the  assembly  to  consider  the 
bill  brought  into  Parliament  at  the  last  session  attacking  the 
paper  currency  of  the  colonies  and  enforcing  the  royal  instruc- 
tions. Its  debate  had  only  been  postponed,  he  assured  them, 
and  meanwhile  it  was  desirable  that  they  remember  that  it  was 
an  essential  part  of  the  constitution  that  the  same  branch  of  the 

*  Ibid.,  p.  262. 
Q 


226  Cadwallader  Colden 

legislature  should  not  both  issue  and  grant  the  revenue,  and 
that  in  rewarding  private  persons  for  services  of  which  he  knew 
nothing  by  means  of  riders  to  the  support  bill,  they  had  pre- 
empted a  privilege  unassumed  by  Parliament.  In  particular, 
moreover,  he  complained  that  Colonel  Johnson  was  unpaid, 
that  the  bearers  of  the  last  flag  of  truce  to  Canada  were  in 
the  same  condition,  though  the  assembly  had  voted  to  settle 
their  accounts  more  than  a  year  before,  and  that  they  had  delib- 
erately misconstrued  his  speech.* 

A  repetition  of  the  preceding  nonsense  followed.  The  mes- 
sage was  received.  The  assembly  drew  up  an  answer.  Clinton 
refused  to  receive  it  for  the  same  reason  as  before,  then  saw  it 
in  the  votes,  and  at  last  accepted  it.  The  assembly  still  insisted 
that  Clinton  had  asked  for  a  quinquennial  grant,  though  his 
denial  of  such  a  demand  might  have  been  taken  as  a  regret  for 
having  made  it  even  if  he  had,  and  said  that  the  services  he  had 
mentioned  had  remained  unpaid  because  he  had  not  presented 
the  accounts.  Then  once  more  his  crimes  were  rehearsed  in 
order  to  show  the  absurdity  of  comparisons  between  himself 
and  the  king.  The  services  for  which  grants  were  made  were 
always  mentioned  in  their  bills,  they  affirmed,  while  Parliament 
often  provided  for  objects  not  mentioned  by  the  crown.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  admitted  that  certain  sums  were  set  apart 
for  the  king's  own  disposal,  but  they  reminded  the  king's 
representative  that  a  king's  interest  was  identical  with  his  sub- 
jects', while  a  governor  was  usually  a  grasping  stranger  whose 
stay  was  uncertain,  and  from  whom  no  redress  could  be  ex- 
pected. By  this  time  there  was  no  hope  of  anything  save  more 
fighting,  and  when  the  governor  followed  the  last  address  by  a 
sufl&ciently  sane  request  for  one  law,  one  object,  and  for  the  use 
of  titles  for  laws  germane  to  their  subject,  the  House  broke 
into  enraged  resolves.    They  affirmed  their  right  of  access  to 

^  Journal,  etc.,  II,  267  et  seq. 


A  Colonial  Politician  227 

the  governor  and  the  enmity  of  his  principal  adviser,  and  they 
refused  to  proceed  until  satisfied  for  the  injury  done  their  ad- 
dress. This  being  refused  in  turn  in  a  message  of  the  20th  of 
July,  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that  the  message  was  unsatis- 
factory and  a  breach  of  privilege,  and  after  a  two  weeks'  dead- 
lock the  assembly  was  prorogued  to  a  distant  date. 

It  was  now  nearly  two  years  since  any  appropriation  had 
been  made  for  government  expenses.  Yet  Clinton  beheved 
that,  while  he  was  unable  to  get  at  a  shilHng  of  the  revenue, 
and  even  had  to  pay  out  of  his  own  pocket  for  the  gunpowder 
of  which  he  made  patriotic  use  on  the  royal  anniversaries,  the 
speaker  was  in  the  habit  of  drawing  on  the  treasury  for  the  ser- 
vices of  the  faction  by  private  order  of  the  House.  And  he  had 
some  reason  for  his  belief.  For  when  during  the  deadlock 
Golden  had  asked  certain  leading  men  if  it  would  not  be  possible 
to  raise  the  sum  necessary  to  ransom  the  prisoners  and  satisfy 
the  Indians  by  private  subscription,  he  was  promptly  assured 
that  it  could  be  done  in  a  day.  But  as  soon  as  the  faction  heard 
of  this  scheme,  they  pronounced  it  dangerous,  and  the  speaker 
proposed  instead  that  the  House  privately  deposit  the  required 
amount  in  the  hands  of  responsible  persons  to  be  designated 
by  the  governor.  His  choice,  however,  was  restricted  to  mem- 
bers of  assembly  living  at  Albany  and  he  refused  the  offer,  pro- 
posing in  turn  that  the  treasurer  should  come  to  the  council, 
as  if  voluntarily,  and  offer  to  pay  their  warrants  for  an  amount 
to  be  named  by  the  House.  But  the  speaker  considered  that 
this  would  prove  a  bad  precedent,  and  the  administration  felt 
obhged  to  comply  with  his  proposition,  exasperating  as  such 
necessity  might  be.^ 

Clinton's  situation,  indeed,  seems  almost  incredible.  The 
chosen  representative  of  a  powerful  nation  in  one  of  its  largest 
colonies,  he  had  now  for  three  years  been  engaged  in  a  bitter 

1 N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  524  and  536. 


228  Cadwallader  Colden 

contest  with  the  people  he  had  been  sent  to  govern.  This  con- 
test, full  of  personal  animosity  though  it  was,  had  early  de- 
veloped into  an  attempt,  on  the  one  hand,  to  uphold  the  dignity 
and  power  of  the  government,  whose  spokesman  and  adminis- 
trator Clinton  was,  and,  on  the  other,  to  curtail  its  effectiveness 
almost  to  the  point  of  extinction.  It  is  preposterous  that  that 
government  should  not,  unasked,  have  declared  its  position  in 
all  those  passing  months.  Yet,  so  far  was  this  from  being  the 
case,  that  it  had  not  spoken,  though  it  had  been  implored,  times 
without  number,  to  say  something  even  if  it  were  a  word  of  dis- 
approval. And  every  one  in  the  province  knew  this  to  be  true. 
Surely  if  ever  government  threw  away  whatever  hold  on  a  colony 
it  may  have  possessed,  that  government  was  England  and  that 
colony  was  New  York.  Colden,  fully  alive,  of  course,  to  the  situa- 
tion, sought  relief  to  his  emotions  in  the  following  letter  to  Shir- 
ley: "The  honour  you  do  me  by  yours  of  26th  of  last  month 
wherein  you  are  pleased  to  give  me  Your  Excellencey's  appro- 
bation of  my  conduct  in  assisting  Govr  Clinton  fully  compensates 
the  injuries  received. ...  I  have  often  said  my  character  had  been 
estabhshed  from  the  Slander  of  a  few  MaUcious  men.  .  .  .  Their 
MaUce  ...  as  to  my  character  has  not  the  least  effect  with  men 
of  sense.  .  .  .  On  the  contrary  it  has  been  often  said  these  People 
establish  Mr.  Colden 's  character.  .  .  .  But  notwithstanding  of 
this  if  wicked  men  should  succeed  by  the  basest  &  most  dis- 
honourable means  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  Government 
what  effect  must  this  have  on  people's  minds  &  manners  ?  As 
to  this  I  can  give  you  a  flagrant  instance  there  is  not  a  man  of 
this  town  who  knows  O.  D.  &  is  not  persuaded  that  he  rail'd 
at  Govr  Clinton  &  abused  his  Character  &  conversation  in 
every  company  wherever  his  name  or  the  publick  affairs  have 
been  mention'd  &  yet  Philip  Vanhorn,  a  constant  bottle  com- 
panion of  his  &  present  when  the  dispute  happen 'd  with  D. 
Colhoun,  on  his  examination  before  the  Council  on  his  oath  .  .  . 


A  Colonial  Politician  229 

said  that  he  did  not  remember  ever  to  have  heard  Oliver  De- 
Lancey  speak  disrespectfully  of  the  Govr.  .  .  .  But  their  greatest 
hopes  ...  are  in  the  Nemine  Contradicente  resolves  of  the  Assem- 
bly &  from  the  Opinion  they  have  that  the  ministry  will  think 
it  prudent  to  comply  with  the  humours  of  the  People  in  that  they 
may  think  that  man  the  most  capable  to  restore  the  Government 
who  has  had  such  power  to  distress.  You  know  what  kind  of 
creature  an  American  Assembly  is  &  yet  you  cannot  have  a 
sufficient  Conception  of  the  Ignorance  &  the  mean  spirit  of  the 
Dutch  members  here.  Most  of  them  ...  of  the  lowest  rank  of 
Artificers.  ...  It  requires  but  a  small  degree  of  artifice  [Golden 
was  assuredly  innocent  of  any  attempt  to  pun]  to  make  them 
believe  the  greatest  absurdities  of  a  Governor  &  I  durst  undertake 
that  if  4  or  5  men  were  not  in  that  house  &  others  in  their 
place  to  have  all  the  Nem  Con's  on  the  other  side  .  .  .  men  not 
engaged  in  the  public  disputes  love  their  own  quiet.  .  .  .  But  if 
it  shall  once  appear  that  the  Chief  Justice's  Interest  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  support  him  in  the  measures  he  has  taken  and  that  the 
King  is  resolv'd  to  support  his  Prerogative  in  the  Plantations 
the  publick  affairs  in  this  government  will  soon  have  a  different 
appearance. ...  I  have  been  near  30  years  in  the  Council  of  the 
Province  ...  &  in  all  that  time  do  not  remember  any  publick 
money  was  drawn  by  any  Govr  &  applied  to  any  other  use  than 
what  it  was  design 'd  for  by  the  Assembly  that  granted  it  except 
for  the  Perquisite  which  the  King's  Auditor  of  his  revenue 
claim'd  and  you  know  Sr  what  influence  the  Govrs  were  under 

at  that  time  to  make  them  do  this If  Govr  CHnton  had  made 

use  of  his  power  in  drawing  the  least  sum  out  of  the  Treasury 
contrary  to  the  intent  of  the  Grantors  it  cannot  be  doubted 
this  Assembly  would  have  pointed  it  particularly  out.  .  .  . 
On  the  contrary  I  am  persuaded  that  of  the  pubHck  money 
more  has  been  converted  to  private  use  since  the  Assembly 
assumed  the  sole  power  of  issuing  it  than  has  been  don  in  any 


230  Cadwallader  Colden 

shape  by  all  or  any  of  the  Governors  since  I  came  into  this 
Province.  .  .  . 

"  It  may  deserve  the  attention  of  his  Majesty's  Ministers  that 
Virginia  is  the  only  Colony  with  a  perpetual  revenue  for  the 
Support  of  Government.  ...  I  hear  of  no  complaints  in  that 
colony  of  their  Governour  or  of  any  complaints  the  Govr  makes 
of  the  People  whereas  great  complaints  are  heard  in  every  other 
colony  of  the  one  or  the  other  or  of  both. 

"I  beheve  a  future  Assembly  may  be  brought  to  consent  to  have 
the  publick  money  issued  by  warrant  as  formerly  but  I  doubt 
that  any  will  consent  to  a  revenue  for  years  far  less  to  a  perpetual 
revenue  because  thereby  they  must  lose  that  power  &  influence 
on  a  Governour  that  every  man  is  fond  of.  But  I  am  of  opinion 
that  his  Majesty's  Quitrents  of  Land  in  this  Province  if  properly 
regulated  would  be  more  than  sufficient  for  the  support  of  the 
Civil  Government.  .  .  .  Yet  if  Prosecutions  in  Chancery  [the 
reform  in  the  land  system  he  has  been  suggesting]  were  set  on 
foot  in  this  Province  where  the  Govr  is  Chancellor  such  clamour 
&  jealousy  would  be  rais'd  as  might  have  bad  effects.  Therefore 
I  am  of  opinion  that  the  most  prudent  Method  would  be  by 
application  to  Parliament. 

"About  the  year  1726 1  sent  a  Memorial  to  the  Board  of  Trade 
wherein  the  State  of  the  Quitrents  is  more  particularly  set  forth 
&  which  was  so  much  taken  notice  of  by  that  Board  that  on 
what  was  represented  in  it  an  Act  for  Partition  of  Lands  in  this 
Province  was  disallowed  &  repealed  by  the  King. 

"  But  any  information  of  this  kind  I  now  make  will  be  attended 
with  such  resentment  as  I  choose  to  avoid  &  I  believe  I  feel 
to  this  day  the  effects  of  that  memorial  and  hence  I  must  beg 
that  nothing  from  this  appear  as  from  me  in  the  publick  offices. 
.  .  .  There  are  some  in  this  Province  capable  of  everything 
that  Caesar  Borgia  was. 

"The  office  of  Chief  Justice  has  more  influence  in  the  publick 


A  Colonial  Politician  231 

affairs  in  this  Colony  than  can  well  be  imagined.  No  man 
that  has  any  Property  can  think  himself  independent  of  the 
Courts  of  Justice,  however  carefull  his  behaviour  in  life  may  be. 
There  are  in  this  Colony  numbers  of  Lawyers  who's  business 
&  fortune  depend  on  the  Countenance  of  a  Chief  Justice.  .  .  . 
When  then  a  Chief  Justice  puts  himself  at  the  head  of  a  Party 
in  this  Colony  he  becomes  as  formidable  at  the  head  of  the 
Lawyers  as  the  Popes  formerly  were  in  the  days  of  ignorance  at 
the  head  of  the  monks  and  friars.  .  .  .  Chief  Justice  Delancey 
told  me  in  conversation  which  was  overheard  by  others  that  I 
would  find  that  a  Chief  Justice  has  more  power  than  a 
Governour.  .  .  . 

"I  am  told  that  Sr  Peter  Warren  has  advised  Coll  Johnson  no 
longer  to  assist  Govr  Clinton  in  the  Indian  affairs  &  to  decline 
all  publick  business.  .  .  .  The  Faction  hereby  hopes  that  the 
Indian  affairs  will  return  into  the  old  Channel  of  the  Comrs  at 
Albany.  ...  I've  heard  that  Coll  Johnson  has  recommended 
Mr.  Lidius  Secretary  for  Indian  affairs  but  I  doubt  of  his 
being  to  equal  his  task.  In  my  opinion  some  person  of  known 
prudence  should  be  imploy'd  .  .  .  with  a  sufficient  allowance 
to  support  him  .  .  .  &  to  reside  at  Albany.  This  officer  to  be 
immediately  under  the  direction  of  the  Govr  of  New  York  but  to 
correspond  with  all  the  neighbouring  Governours.  .  .  .^ " 

Colden  certainly  found  enough  to  annoy  and  distress  him,  but 
it  is  probable  that  his  own  temperament  saved  him  from  seeing 
the  deHcate  irony  of  his  position  as  some  saw  it.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  Delancey  had  early  encouraged  him  to  make 
the  worst  of  himself  in  any  given  situation.  It  was  now  beHeved 
that,  in  fear  lest  Clinton  should  leave  before  the  delivery  of  the 
lieutenant-governor's  commission,  and  horrified  at  the  prospect 
of  seeing  Colden  take  the  chair  as  president  of  the  council, 
the  resourceful  chief  justice  was  actually  inventing  situations 

1  July  25,  1749. 


232  Cadwallader  Colden 

to  rouse  Colden's  indignation  and  move  him  to  bore  the  ministry 
to  the  point  of  disgust.  It  is  Smith's  opinion,  however,  that 
CUnton  now  began  to  reaUze  that  he  had  been  the  victim  of  the 
clashing  aims  of  Colden  and  Delancey,  and  that  from  that  mo- 
ment Colden's  power  was  at  an  end/  In  fact,  Clinton  had  long 
felt  that  Colden's  influence  did  not  make  for  peace  and  had 
begged  his  assistance  from  necessity  as  much  as  from  choice. 
Yet,  now  that  such  necessity  was  removed  by  certain  new  con- 
nections of  the  governor's,^  his  assistance  was  sought  as  before, 
and  if  his  presence  was  no  longer  continually  implored,  it  was  not 
reasonable  that  Clinton  should  continue  to  ask  it  after  so  many 
refusals  when  he  had  more  than  a  single  resource. 

The  governor's  new  friends  were  William  Smith,  the  histo- 
rian's father,  and  Robert  Hunter  Morris,  the  son  of  the  old 
colonel.  Smith  had  been  out  of  politics  since  Cosby's  time,  but 
when  Clinton  offered  him  the  attorney  generalship,  provided 
royal  confirmation  of  the  appointment  could  be  obtained,  he 
accepted  it,  and  from  that  moment  devoted  himself  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  harmony  between  the  legislators  and  officials  of  the 
colony.  Clinton's  relations  with  Morris,  who  was  chief  jus- 
tice of  the  Jerseys  and  a  member  of  one  of  the  few  prominent 
families  hostile  to  the  Delanceys,  had  at  first  been  merely  social. 
But  it  took  but  a  few  fishing  excursions  to  show  each  how  the 
other  could  be  of  use.  Morris,  who  was  on  the  point  of  sailing 
for  England  to  push  the  Jersey  boundary  that  the  Delanceys 
were  opposing,  wished  to  be  lieutenant-governor  of  New  York. 
Clinton  wished  to  present  a  memorial  on  the  state  of  New  York 
to  the  king  through  some  influential  colonial.  Smith  says  that 
Clinton  agreed  to  further  Morris's  candidacy,  while  Morris 
promised  to  take  charge  of  the  memorial,  and  that  it  was  de- 
cided to  leave  Colden  in  ignorance  of  his  rival's  scheme,  as  his 
assistance  was  necessary  in  getting  up  the  memorial  itself.     Yet 

^  Smith's  History,  II,  129. 


A  Colonial  Politician  233 

Clinton  continued  to  favour  Colden  in  his  letters  home,  and  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  credit  him  with  sufficient  duplicity  to 
say  one  thing  and  write  another  when  so  much  depended  on  it. 
At  any  rate,  he  got  what  he  wished.  "Govr  Clinton,"  Alex- 
ander wrote  on  September  25,  1749,  "has  bespoke  .  .  .  passage 
for  Chj.  Morris  .  .  .  who  does  not  propose  to  sail  till  the  middle 
of  next  month  &  it  may  be  the  end  of  it.  Cj.  M.^  thinks  of  going 
to  Philadelphia  next  week.  .  .  .  I  should  be  heartyly  glad  for  Govr 
CHnton's  sake  that  you  were  here  at  his  return.  .  .  .  Seeing  no 
man  can  be  more  willing  &  few  more  able  to  Serve  him  in  Eng- 
land than  Cj.  Morris,  &  the  Chief  matter  [that]  will  be  wanting  is 
to  give  him  a  good  insight  into  what  is  to  be  done  and  into  the 
materials  effecting  it  which  I  think  is  impossible  to  Let  him  into 
So  fully  as  you  could.  Cj.  Morris  tells  me  the  Govr  is  extremely 
Chagrined  with  Catherwood. 

"  He  had  rec'd  a  letter  from  him  acquainting  him  that  having 
had  his  accounts  of  a  late  date  only,  [those]  concerning  the  Ex- 
pedition are  Lost,  Mislaid,  or  Secreted,  &  Desireing  to  bring  his 
accounts  with  him  by  which  it  Seems  likely  he  had  possessed  the 
Governor's  friends  with  his  intention  of  returning  and  conse- 
quently needless  to  do  anything  in  his  other  affairs  till  he  came. 
.  .  ."  "I  have  received  3  Itrs  from  Catherwd,"  wrote  Clinton 
in  November,  "the  first  ...  as  follows — Lord  Hallefaxtold  me 
yesterday  that  he  hoped  you  wou'd  not  leave  Mr  D'lancey 
your  deputy  in  case  you  come  home  whereupon  I  told  His 
Lordship,  that  I  believed  you  had  Suspended  him.  He  asked  if 
Yr  Exccy  had  a  power  so  to  do,  to  which  I  answered  yes,  at  which 
he  was  greatly  pleased.  .  .  .  The  next  .  .  .  Sayes  he  was  told  by 
one  that  I  should  have  put  him  in  Irons,  others  that  I  should  have 
sent  him  home  in  Irons,  &  if  no  Lawyer  woud  prosecute  I 
should  have  appointed  a  person  of  my  own  naming  to  have  done 
it,  .  .  .  &  he  says  has  inclost  *  this  to  Dr.  Colden  in  case  of  your 

^  Chief  Justice  Morris. 


234  Cadwallader  Colden 

Absence  who  suppose  you  have  appointed  Lieutenant  Governor^ 
.  .  .  the  17th  September  ...  is  convinced  at  last  I  dont  come 
home.  .  .  .  The  Chief  Justice  has  received  letters  from  Sr  P  ^ 
which  gauls  him  much  ...  for  it's  hinted  that  he  will  be  turned 
out  of  all.  I  hope  Catherwood  will  turn  out  more  Sincere  than 
thought  by  Some  people."  "  Consult  M  Alex.,"  Colden  said  in  his 
answer.  But  for  the  next  year  if  some  especially  annoying  attack 
was  made  by  the  faction ;  if  the  difficulty  between  Frenchmen 
and  Englishmen  in  Nova  Scotia  was  to  be  written  up;  if 
there  was  a  crisis  in  Indian  affairs;  if  the  treasurer  refused 
to  recognize  the  governor's  orders ;  if  the  French,  already  plan- 
ning their  march  to  the  Ohio,  were  to  be  proved  to  have  over- 
stepped a  boundary;  if  some  administrative  suggestion  was  to 
be  made  or  if  some  entirely  new  problem  was  to  be  dealt  with, 
it  was  Colden  who  was  consulted  or  asked  to  do  what  was  neces- 
sary, as  the  case  might  be.  It  is  hard,  indeed,  to  see  what  was 
left  for  any  one  else  to  do. 

"The  Gov.  changed  his  resolution  on  very  good  grounds  & 
for  substantial  reasons,"  he  instructed  Catherwood.  "He  could 
not  so  effectually  serve  his  Majesty  by  returning  to  Great  Britain 
...  &  the  regard  which  he  ought  to  have  to  his  own  reputation 
likewise  required  it.  The  Faction  had  endeavoured  to  persuade 
the  people  that  the  Govrs  Conduct  was  so  much  blamed  that  his 
friends  could  not  support  him  8z  that  the  Chief  Justice  has  a 
better  Interest  at  Court  than  the  Govr  &  had  he  gon  people 
would  have  been  confirmed  in  this  opinion  .  .  .  this  opinion  was 
exceedingly  strengthened  by  the  Govrs  not  having  been  able  to 
procure  anything  directly  from  the  Ministry  in  vindication  of  his 
conduct.  If  the  Govr  had  gon,  there  probably  would  have  been 
some  grand  effort  made  to  have  given  some  glaring  instance  of 
the  People's  Dissatisfaction.  ...  It  did  not  seem  prudent  to  run 
any  risque  of  this  kind.  .  .  .  For  his  bills  are  not  paid  and  proba- 
bly attempts  would  have  been  made  to  have  distressed  him  per- 

1  Sir  Peter  Warren. 


A  Colonial  Politician  235 

sonally  in  order  to  satisfy  their  malicious  peek  and  resentment 
&  others  must  be  persuaded  that  the  distressing  him  personally 
would  be  the  most  effectual  means  to  get  their  Bills  speedily  paid. 
I  think  it  necessary  to  take  notice  to  you  of  the  mischievousness 
of  the  Methods  taken  by  the  Faction  to  carry  their  ends  viz. 
by  propagating  the  most  vile  and  false  calumnies  ...  of  his 
Excellency's  administration.  ...  It  not  only  concerns  the 
Ministry  to  discover  those  artifices  which  tend  to  destroy  all 
Government  .  .  .  but  every  honest  man  who  desires  to  enjoy 
his  estate  and  liberty  in  safety.  .  .  . 

"This  unreasonable  increase  of  popular  power  by  which  the 
proper  Ballance  of  power  essential  to  the  Enghsh  Constitution 
is  entirely  destroy'd  in  the  Colonies  is  wholly  owing  to  the  Gov- 
ernours  having  no  subsistence  but  from  the  Assembly.  I  can 
give  several  instances  .  .  .  where  Governours  have  for  several 
years  stood  firm  to  the  Kings  Instruction  in  Support  of  his  pre- 
rogative &  .  .  .  after  all  were  obliged  to  comply  with  the  humours 
of  the  Assembly  or  starve  or  be  sunk  in  debt.  .  .  .  Yet  I  am  of 
opinion  that  there  is  no  need  of  Force  to  recover  the  King's 
just  prerogative.  ...  I  am  confident  that  if  the  Govr  have  his 
Sallary  independent  of  the  Assembly  and  proper  Judges  be 
appointed  with  Sallaries  likewise  independent  of  the  Assembly 
&  the  public  money  put  into  the  receiver  General's  hands  granted 
by  the  King  for  that  purpose  the  King's  just  prerogative  will  be 
recovered.  .  .  .  The  Quitrents  with  the  duties  on  Wine,  rum,  & 
other  West  India  commodities  will  suffice.   .  .  . 

"  I  am  likewise  of  opinion  that  the  sending  at  least  one  skillful 
lawyer  from  England  to  be  Chief  Justice  with  a  proper  Sallary 
is  absolutely  necessary  not  only  for  recovering  the  King's 
prerogative  but  for  the  due  execution  of  common  justice.  .  .  . 
A  Chief  Justice  with  a  powerful  family  is  not  only  too  hard  for 
any  one  man  in  the  Governmt  but  may  prove  too  hard  for  the 
Government  itself.  .  .  ."  ^ 

^  November  21,  1749. 


236  Cadwallader  Colden 

The  subject  of  the  hour  was  the  lawless  career  of  the  treasurer. 
In  consequence  of  an  address  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  the 
king,  Bedford  had  written  to  CHnton  for  a  detailed  statement 
of  the  paper  money  current  in  the  colony.  This  proved  a  diffi- 
cult task,  so  difficult  that  it  confirmed  the  suspicion  that  the 
treasurer  had  been  reissuing  bills,  which  had  come  in  to  be  can- 
celled, for  the  use  of  the  assembly.  It  was  to  prevent  this  very 
thing  that  Colden  had  opposed  certain  loosely  constructed  money 
bills  with  every  argument  in  his  power.  But  his  failure  to  con- 
vince was  a  matter  of  course,  and  now  when,  after  long  delay 
and  many  fatuous  excuses,  the  treasurer  presented  his  statement, 
it  was  so  clearly  incorrect  that  he  asked  Ayscough  if  he  might 
change  the  year  "1747"  to  "1749"  and  make  one  or  two  other 
embellishments  which  would  improve  the  balance,  even  though 
it  were  at  the  sacrifice  of  accuracy.  After  it  had  been  patched 
up  into  some  sort  of  order,  a  distressing  discovery  was  made  in 
regard  to  the  excise.  The  act  fixing  the  duty  included  the  year 
1756,  but  it  appeared  that  the  method  of  its  collection  was 
arranged  for  each  year  in  the  autumn  session,  the  fiscal  year 
beginning  the  ist  of  January.  But  there  had  been  no  autumn 
session  in  1 749,  and  the  assembly  was  prorogued  till  the  9th  of 
January,  1750.  This  state  of  affairs  was  first  noticed  by  the 
opposition,  and  for  some  reason  both  parties  at  once  became 
intensely  excited  over  the  subject.  "His  Excellency,"  wrote 
Ayscough  to  Colden,  "  was  very  easy  in  relation  to  these  affairs 
depending  on  what  you  told  him.  .  .  .  But  on  my  consulting  with 
Messrs.  Alexander,  Smith,  the  Mayor  and  Recorder  this  morn- 
ing, they  are  all  of  opinion  .  .  .  that  the  People  have  too  good 
reason  for  the  Rumour  that  is  industriously  spread  abroad.  The 
Case  is  thus,  on  a  Supposition  that  His  Excellency  should  meet 
the  Assembly  on  the  9th  of  Jan'y  next  only  to  pass  the  2  afore- 
said acts,  and  they  should  insist  on  not  going  upon  Business, 
but  as  they  said  before  they  would  not,  till  his  Excellency  had 


A  Colonial  Politician  237 

given  a  Satisfactory  answer,  this  though  irregular,  and  a  mere 
Supposition,  Yet  .  .  .  Mr.  Alexander's  Opinion  is  that  the  Gov- 
ernor should  not  meet  the  Assembly  at  this  time,  neither  do  I 
see  how  his  Excellency  can  meet  them  till  he  hears  from  home. .  .  . 
The  Recorder  says  that  an  act  of  Assembly  (in  case  they  should 
meet)  can  be  made  to  retrospect.  But  it  is  Mr.  Alexander's 
positive  opinion  it  can  not.  His  Excellency  desires  you  would 
give  yourself  time,  maturely  to  deUberate  on  this  affair,  &  let 
him  have  as  soon  as  possible  by  the  Bearer  your  Opinion.  .  .  . 
He  takes  it  very  unkind  that  you  hurryed  away  so  soon  that  you 
had  not  time  to  weigh  well  what  to  advise  him  in  case  anything 
should  occur,  by  his  continuing  the  Assembly  prorogued."*  "As 
the  manner  of  Dr.  Ayscough's  writing  to  me  as  well  as  the  sub- 
ject of  it  was  entirely  unexpected,"  Golden  wrote  Glinton,  "I 
choose  to  answer  ...  to  your  Excellency.  It  was  unexpected, 
because  I  thought  your  Excellency  had  considered  the  Subject  of 
it  some  months  since  at  least  so  far  that  .  .  .  upon  a  very  little 
reflection  Your  Excellency  would  have  remov'd  any  kind  of  Un- 
easiness on  this  occasion  which  those  in  opposition  have  &  will 
allwise  endeavour  to  raise  .  .  .  especially  if  they  can  impose  on 
the  weakness  of  some  of  Your  Excellency's  friends  ...  to  make 
you  uneasy.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  Duty  act  expires 
&  those  Duties  cannot  be  levied  any  longer  but  who  has  most 
reason  to  complain  on  this  subject?  Not  the  merchants  surely 
by  their  being  freed  from  the  payment  of  Duties.  ...  As  to  the 
excise,  if  anything  has  happen'd  of  prejudice  to  the  Excise  Fund 
by  the  Assembhes  not  meeting  since  Septr  last,  Your  Excellency 
cannot  be  blamed  .  .  .  because  it  was  the  Duty  of  the  Assembly 
to  frame  the  temporary  and  yearly  acts  by  which  the  manner  of 
Gollecting  the  Excise  was  yearly  alter'd  in  Such  manner  that  the 
Excise  fund  should  not  suffer  in  Gase  Your  Excellency  should 
not  .  .  .  assent  to  a  Hke  act  for  the  future  or  decide  not  to  meet  the 

^  December  22,  1749. 


238  Cadwallader  Colden 

Assembly.  ..."  Otherwise,  Colden  went  on  to  say,  the  gov- 
ernor's power  to  prorogue  and  to  veto  would  practically  be 
removed.  He  said,  moreover,  that,  whereas  two  or  three  years 
before,  the  city  excise  was  let  or  farmed  according  to  the  original 
act  for  ;£iooo  or  £1300  a  year,  the  city  and  county  excise 
had  last  been  let  by  special  act  to  certain  persons  by  name  for 
;^74o,  while  at  the  same  time  the  excise  of  the  whole  province 
had  been  let  for  not  more  than  the  city  had  formerly  produced 
alone.  Yet  owing  to  the  increase  of  inhabitants  it  should  at 
least  have  been  double. 

Chnton  was  glad  enough  to  believe  all  this,  for  he  had  resolved, 
supported  by  Colden,  but  opposed  by  Alexander  and  Smith, 
to  dissolve  the  assembly  without  meeting  it  again,  unless  some 
news  of  his  memorial  or  some  encouragement  from  his  close- 
lipped  superiors  should  reach  him.  Meanwhile,  all  was  un- 
certainty. None  knew  whom  to  trust.  It  was  reported  that  Sir 
Peter  Warren  had  written  to  Johnson  to  keep  in  CUnton's  favour 
and  on  a  good  understanding  with  the  chief  justice.  It  was 
impossible  to  read  between  the  lines  of  such  "a  Contradiction 
in  terms,"  as  Johnson  called  it,  so  he  settled  the  problem  by 
barely  speaking  to  Delancey  when  they  met.  Johnson,  also, 
was  hinting  that  he  could  not  keep  on  much  longer  without  some 
appropriation,  and  CHnton  himself  had  advanced  much  that  he 
might  never  get  back.  Yet  he  did  not  even  dare  to  summon  the 
council  without  Colden  by  his  side,  knowing,  he  said,  that  on  his 
asking  their  advice,  they  would  either  be  silent  or  at  least  only 
"hum  &  haw"  and  ask  why  Colden  was  not  sent  for.  He  was 
disturbed  by  hearing  that  a  half  dozen  prominent  "Yorkers," 
one  of  whom  he  had  thought  a  firm  supporter,  were  canvassing  the 
country  from  New  York  to  Albany  in  the  interest  of  the  opposi- 
tion, while  Catherwood's  news  was  equally  disquieting.  Sir 
Peter,  he  wrote,  was  aiming  secretly  to  become  the  New  York 
governor  himself,  while  Mr.  Pelham  had  told  Governor  Shirley 


A  Colonial  Politician  239 

that  Golden  had  been  represented  to  him  as  a  very  disagreeable 
person  for  the  presiding  officer  of  the  government  —  and  that 
he  had  even  been  suspected  of  being  a  tool  to  the  chief  justice 
and  Sir  Peter  by  exposing  the  loss  of  the  king's  authority  under 
Governor  Ghnton. 

And  when  the  long-expected  packet  at  length  arrived,  the  un- 
certainty was  not  removed.  Besides  the  report  of  an  agreement 
between  their  Majesties  of  France  and  England  there  was,  in- 
deed, a  letter  from  Bedford.  But  his  Grace  only  promised  his 
Excellency  vigorous  support,  if  things  were  as  he  represented 
them,  as  he  had  no  doubt  that  they  were.  In  April,  however, 
the  ministry  sent  for  a  repetition  of  the  reasons  for  Horsman- 
den's  suspension,  sent  first  two  years  before,  and  Golden  was 
given  the  old  heads  and  asked  to  write  them  up.  Evidently 
something  was  happening  at  last.  About  this  time,  moreover, 
an  event  occurred  that  Golden  and  Glinton  thought  might  pos- 
sibly strengthen  their  case.^  One  evening  while  H.  M.  S. 
Greyhound  was  cruising  in  the  lower  Hudson,  a  little  boat 
flying  a  Bridger  flag  appeared.  According  to  the  instructions 
for  the  suppression  of  smuggHng,  the  guns  were  pointed  and  the 
commanding  officer  ordered  the  first  mate  to  fire  in  warning. 
The  flag  still  flying,  he  ordered  him  to  fire  again,  and  this  shot 
instantly  killed  a  nursemaid  on  board  the  Uttle  boat.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  commander  of  the  ship  was  a  Gaptain  Roddam 
with  whom  Ghnton 's  daughter  had  eloped  a  year  or  two  before. 
He  was  not  on  board  at  the  time  of  the  shooting,  but  that  made 
little  difference.  The  owner  and  skipper  of  the  small  boat  was 
a  popular  young  militia  officer  and  the  affair  was  made  a  party 
issue.  Gaptain  Roddam  arrested  the  Ueutenant  in  command  to 
be  sent  to  England  for  trial  and  despatched  the  mate  and  others 
to  the  coroner's  inquest.  But  Delancey  issued  a  warrant  for 
the  mate's  arrest  before  he  even  knew  of  the  results  of  his  exami- 

1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  571-576. 


240  Cadwallader  Colden 

nation.  In  vain  Roddam  urged  that  the  offence  was  committed 
neither  in  the  city  nor  county  of  New  York  but  in  the  Hudson 
between  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  and  that  it  was,  therefore, 
cognizable  by  the  admiralty  board,  sending  a  clause  of  Clinton's 
commission  in  proof ;  and  in  vain  Clinton  ordered  the  attorney 
general  to  demand  the  mate's  person.  Delancey  paid  no  atten- 
tion. In  was  then  that  the  administration  thought  they  saw 
their  opportunity.  "By  the  enclosed  message  and  letters," 
Ayscough  wrote  Colden,  "you  will  see  the  evasive  Subterfuge 
of  the  C.  J.  I  have  shewn  them  to  Mr.  Alexander  who  is  much 
pleased  .  .  .  and  doubts  not  but  on  a  proper  Representation  of 
the  Facts  this  may  be  a  finishing  stroke  to  him  ...  for  such  pro- 
ceedings after  so  sufficient  notice  as  the  copy  of  the  clause  in  the 
Governor's  commission,  cannot  be  reckoned  consistent  with 
good  Behaviour.  His  Excellency  desires  you  will  represent  it 
in  its  proper  light  as  strong  as  possible.  .  .  .  Smith  is  of  Mr. 
Alexander's  Opinion.  ..."  "  Write  to  His  Grace  of  Bedford 
&  to  the  Lords  of  Trade.  ...  It  may  be  likewise  proper  to  write 
to  the  Admiralty,"  Colden  exhorted  Clinton,  "not  only  as  you 
are  Governor  of  this  Province  but  an  Admiral  of  the  fleet  .  .  . 
as  the  proceedings  in  this  place  may  greatly  affect  the  authority  of 
the  officers  &  the  DiscipUne  on  board  his  Majesty's  Ships  in 
the  Colonies  and  render  the  observance  of  the  instructions  which 
the  Captains  receive  for  preventing  illicit  trade  difficult  if  not 
dangerous  to  them.  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  Chief  Justice  will 
release  or  deliver  up  the  gunner's  mate  the  next  court  on  his 
pleading  to  the  jurisdiction  &  thereby  excuse  his  past  conduct. 
But  this  Your  Excelly  is  not  to  trust  to  nor  on  such  expectation 
to  delay  your  giving  the  proper  informations.  Your  Excelly 
1  suppose  will  leave  the  C.  J.  to  proceed  as  he  shall  think  proper 
without  any  interposition  on  your  part  unless  he  proceed  to  a 
Condemnation  in  which  case  you  have  the  power  of  repriev- 
ing. ..." 


A  Colonial  Politician  241 

Indeed,  Smith  to  the  contrary,  Golden  and  Clinton  had  never 
been  on  more  friendly  terms.  "I  propose  setting  out  for  the 
high  lands  about  the  5th  of  next  month,"  wrote  Clinton,  June  29, 
1750,  "and  ...  I  am  determined  to  make  you  a  Visit  at  Col- 
denham  about  the  loth  but  now  Dear  Colden  no  Fuss.  .  .  ."  "On 
my  arrival  I  found  ...  a  Letter  from  Mr.  Catherwood,"  he  wrote 
on  the  19th  of  July.  "Mr.  Holland  and  Coll.  Johnson  are  both 
appointed  of  the  Council  ...  &  no  mention  of  Mr.  Alexander's 
being  restored  which  as  I  imagine  has  made  Mr.  Rutherford 
and  him  change  their  note  about  a  dissolution.  C.  Justice 
Morris  is  at  Bath  &  Lord  Hallifax  is  there  too  so  that  nothing 
can  be  done  in  any  other  affair  till  he  returns  from  Bath.  There- 
fore I  must  desire  you  will  set  out  immediately  .  .  .  that  I  may 
consult  with  you  for  I  have  already  gave  private  notice  to  Colonel 
Hicks  Morris  &  the  persons  who  are  in  my  interest  in  King's 
County  that  I  proposed  a  Dissolution,  this  being  an  Affair  that 
requires  your  Advice  to  me  as  well  as  talking  to  Messrs  Alexander 
and  Rutherford.  ..."  "Capt.  Roddams's  Gunner's  mate  was 
found  guilty,  of  manslaughter,  G.  Justice  on  the  bench,"  wrote 
Asy cough  on  August  8th,  "  notwithstanding  it  was  the  opinion  of 
every  one  when  the  Point  of  Law  was  argued  before  him  the  day 
before  by  Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Murray  that  the  former's  Asser- 
tions were  so  Strong  that  every  one  thought  it  must  have  went  in 
favour  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  to  take  cognizance 
of  it  Si  Mr.  Smith  was  ready  to  prove  his  Assertions  by  the  Books 
but  it  was  not  allowed,  the  C.  J.  saying  he  was  fully  persuaded 
it  was  cognizable  in  Banco  Regis  ...  I  hope  to  get  you  by  the 
time  you  come  down  the  arguments  on  both  sides  for  your  assist- 
ance in  reporting  the  case  home.  Oliver  entered  his  appearance 
the  first  day  of  the  term.  His  Excellcy  desires  you  will  not,  by 
any  means,  fail  being  down  by  the  28th  at  furthest  that  he  may 
be  prepared  to  meet  the  Assembly,  which  he  proposes  to  do 
fair  and  Softly  and  see  what  that  will  do  with  them.  ..." 


242  Cadwallader  Colden 

X 

It  was  a  new  assembly  of  which  Ayscough  wrote.  For  when 
the  report  of  the  agents  that  definite  news  was  near  was  followed 
by  the  announcement  that  the  case  of  New  York  would  not  be 
considered  before  the  king's  return  from  Hanover,  Clinton  de- 
termined to  risk  an  election  on  the  strength  of  the  appointment 
of  two  of  his  own  nominees,  Holland  and  Johnson,  to  the  coun- 
cil. The  government  was  being  run  on  credit  and  the  creditors 
were  getting  tired ;  Clinton  had  himself  paid  for  Oswego  for  a 
year  and  he  was  getting  tired ;  and  it  was  necessary  to  check  the 
French.  They  were  indefatigable:  setting  English  Indians  on 
each  other  and  on  the  Indians  to  the  east,  the  west,  and  the 
south ;  supplying  Indians  on  the  way  to  Oswego  with  necessities 
at  a  reduction  and  with  brandy  and  rum  gratis;  claiming  vast 
stretches  of  country  with  Gallic  ceremony;  and  forbidding  the 
natives  to  admit  the  English  under  heavy  penalties.  "Mr. 
Weiser  [an  interpreter]  is  just  returned  from  Onondago," 
wrote  Franklin  to  Colden  in  October,  "and  gives  a  melancholy 
account  of  the  declining  State  of  the  English  and  Encrease  of  the 
French  Interest  among  the  Six  Nations.  I  hope  the  Interview 
intended  with  them  by  your  Government  will  be  a  means  of 
securing  their  Attachment  to  the  British  Nation.  I  wish  you  all 
the  Satisfaction  that  Ease  and  Retirement  from  Publick  Busi- 
ness can  possibly  give  you.  But  let  not  your  Love  of  Philo- 
sophical Amusements  have  more  than  its  due  weight  with  you. 
Had  Newton  been  Pilot  but  of  a  single  common  Ship,  and  left 
it  in  the  hour  of  danger,  the  finest  of  his  Discoveries  would  scarce 
have  excus'd  or  allowed  for  abandoning  the  Helm  one  hour  in 
time  of  Danger.  How  much  less  if  she  had  carried  the  Fate  of 
the  Commonwealth.  .  .  ."  ^ 

As  this  implies,  the  assembly  had  met  with  Colden  at  Coldeng- 
ham.    There  were  six  new  members,  but  Jones  was  still  speaker, 

^  October  ii,  1750. 


A  Colonial  Politician 


243 


and  the  old-time  leaders  were  in  their  places.  They  feared, 
however,  that  the  governor  would  reject  their  support  bill, 
just  as  he  feared  that  they  might  refuse  to  present  one.  For 
the  creditors  did  not  all  blame  Clinton,  and  there  were  many 
complaints  of  the  selfishness  of  party.  Their  fears,  of  course, 
proved  groundless.  CHnton  urged  the  wisdom  and  necessity 
of  conforming  to  those  instructions  framed  by  the  great  ministers 
of  the  Revolution,  but  he  promised  the  speaker  to  pass  all  bills 
as  they  were  framed  in  Clark's  time,  and  then  wrote  to  Colden 
to  make  his  excuses  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  the  Board  of 
Trade.  When,  moreover,  the  assembly  refused  him  an  appro- 
priation for  a  treaty  with  the  Ohio  Indians  and  the  governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  because  Pennsylvania  would  get  the  benefit  with- 
out the  work,  he  merely  said  that  he  would  give  his  time  and  ser- 
vices if  they  would  meet  the  expenses.  So  most  of  the  debts 
were  paid,  a  civil  list  granted,  and  the  governor  promised  a  new 
house  and  stable,  while  the  assembly  was  adjourned  without  a 
break  in  the  calm.  "His  Excellency  .  .  .  wants  your  advice  now 
as  ever  he  did  at  anytime,"  wrote  Asycough,  "but  he  will  endeavor 
to  do  the  best  he  can  without  it."  Yet  it  is  doubtful  if  Colden 
would  have  permitted  such  a  surrender  of  the  principles  laid 
down  by  the  administration  as  Clinton  had  allowed  himself. 
"I  expected  a  particular  account  in  what  manner  the  affairs 
of  the  Assembly  concluded  .  .  .  ,"  he  said  to  Clinton  in  regard 
to  some  letters  he  had  written  to  England  at  the  governor's 
request.  "Without  this  I  could  not  form  what  Your  Excellency 
desired  of  me  as  I  wished.  ...  I  hear  that  the  Assembly  has  com- 
plied with  your  private  concerns  and  I  very  heartily  give  you  joy 
of  it  not  only  for  the  immediate  use  it  is  of  to  yourself  &  family 
but  that  by  this  it  will  appear  that  the  real  ground  of  dispute 
with  Your  Excellcy  was  not  from  anything  personal  ...  but  from 
your  Indeavours  to  support  the  King's  Authority  .  .  .  and  that 
now  the  Ministry  may  see  that  Your  Excellcy  can  be  as  well  as 


244  Cadwallader  Colden 

to  your  own  private  Interest  with  an  Assembly  of  New  York 
as  any  other  Governor  if  you  would  consider  more  the  pleasing 
of  them  than  your  Duty  to  the  king  and  that  upon  such  terms 
you  doubt  not  to  have  the  same  men  who  exclaim'd  against  you 
to  represent  your  Excellcy  as  a  man  of  the  strictest  honour  and 
integrity." 

"At  this  time,"  Clinton  repUed,  quoting  an  English  friend, 
"the  Plantations  engage  ye  whole  Thoughts  of  the  Men  in  power, 
and  your  Province  in  particular  and  C.  J.  Morris  is  extreamly 
dilHgent  and  .  .  .  extreamly  well  received.  .  .  .  There  has  been  a 
great  Council  at  ye  Cock  Pit .  .  .  what  is  concluded  on  is  not  yet 
known  but  soon  will  be  as  ye  Lords  of  Trade  are  ordered  to  draw- 
up  a  State  of  these  2  Provinces  (New  York  and  New  Jersey) 
to  be  laid  before  ye  Council  together  with  their  opinion  what 
Measures  will  be  proper  to  restore  and  estabhsh  ye  King's 
Authority.  ...  I  intend  Proroguing  the  Assembly  to  the  8  of 
June  next,  and  won't  say  I  will  come  &  fetch  you  but  I  beheve 
I  shall.  .  .  ."  "You  have  been  his  [the  governor's]  toast  every 
of  those  three  times  that  I  have  been  in  company  with  him," 
Alexander  reported  cheerfully,  "and  Fryday  night  Mrs.  Clinton 
found  fault  with  his  toasting  of  you  for  that  you  were  her  Con- 
stant toast.  ..." 

But  there  was  a  fine  air  of  patronizing  disapproval  about 
Colden's  last  letter  that  worried  Clinton.  He  had  given  Colden 
all  he  asked.  He  had  made  one  son  commissary  of  the  levies, 
another  storekeeper  of  the  Fort  and  clerk  of  Albany  County, 
and  he  had  done  all  he  could  to  make  Colden  himself  Ueutenant- 
governor.  Yet  his  hearty  kindness  was  certainly  not  reflected 
in  his  old  adviser's  possibly  sarcastic  feHcitations,  though  the 
adviser  was  planning  to  appeal  to  it  once  more.  The  mandamus 
for  the  restoration  of  Alexander  to  the  council  had  at  length 
arrived,  and  that  good  friend  lost  no  time  in  using  his  new  posi- 
tion to  get  Colden  at  least  one  thing  he  wanted.     Hence  it  was 


A  Colonial  Politician  245 

decided  that  Golden  should  apply  for  a  commission  as  sur- 
veyor general  during  good  behaviour,  to  be  granted  to  himself 
and  his  eldest  son  jointly,  with  reversion  to  his  son  at  his  death. 
He  also  wrote  a  personal  note  asking  the  governor's  influence, 
and  sent  both  note  and  application  to  Alexander  to  use  as  he 
judged  best.  "Mr.  Kennedy  Sent  me  word  this  morning," 
wrote  the  new  councillor  on  January  2,  1751,  "that  his  Ex- 
cellency would  see  Company  at  noon,  &  Rutherford,  he  &  I 
agreed  to  go  together.  .  .  .  Instead  of  a  deed  of  trust  I  Drew 
the  form  of  a  power  from  your  son  to  you  to  Execute  solely 
the  office  during  your  Life,  with  power  to  Set  his  name  with 
your  own  to  all  things  to  pass  in  the  office,  with  covenant  to 
execute  no  part  of  the  office  personally  during  your  Life  without 
your  express  order  in  writing  .  .  .  and  Least  objections  might  be 
to  the  Granting  i  office  to  2  persons  I  made  some  extracts  from 
the  present  State  of  Great  Britain  printed  in  1720  of  a  Single 
office  granted  to  two  &  sometimes  to  three  persons.  ...  I  also 
then  got  the  commission  Engrost  in  parchment.  . . .  Since  writing 
the  above  I  have  waited  on  his  Excellency.  After  the  Company 
was  gone  his  Excellency  called  me  and  we  had  almost  half  an 
hour's  Conversation  on  your  affairs,  the  result  whereof  was  that 
he  would  call  a  council  to  morrow  morning  &  would  Send  be- 
forehand &  speak  to  the  Mayor.  .  .  .  You'll  wonder  how  we 
came  to  talk  so  long  on  that  affair.  In  short  his  Excellency 
expresst  Some  apprehensions  of  your  being  Dissatisfied,  reca- 
pitulated reasons  why  you  ought  not  and  reasons  for  his  appre- 
hensions, among  others  the  bad  Success  he  had  in  giving  a  Com- 
mission in  that  manner  to  the  Chief  Justice,  which  I  obviated 
with  the  best  reasons  in  my  power  and  said  that  Acquaintance 
with  you  above  33  years  rendered  me  well  assured  of  the  im- 
possibility of  your  making  a  Like  return  for  this  favour  as  the 
Chief  Justice  had  done  in  the  like  case. 

"  One  of  the  reasons  for  his  apprehensions  was  a  Letter  he  told 


246  Cadwallader  Colden 

me  he  had  received  from  you  .  .  .  with  some  things  more  biteing 
than  he  had  Expected.  I  think  it  would  not  be  amiss  you 
lookt  over  your  Coppies  or  recollect  what  could  give  offense  in 
any  of  your  Letters,  and  if  you  can  Discover  anything  that  way 
to  apologize  for  it.  Your  daughter's  illness  is  a  sufficient 
foundation. 

"  One  of  the  reasons  why  you  ought  not  to  be  Dissatisfied  was 
that  he  had  kept  the  office  of  Secretary  of  Indian  Affairs  open 
for  you,  that  he  had  Several  times  proposed  giving  you  a  Com- 
mission for  that  purpose,  that  he  had  wrote  home  to  prevent 
any  Commission  passing  there,  that  wen  Catherwood  had  wrote 
to  him  that  Coll.  Johnson  had  recommended  Lidius  to  him  for 
that  Commission  ...  he  wrote  him  back  to  oppose  it  to  him 
or  any  one  else  but  if  the  thing  was  pusht  by  any  to  insist  on 
your  being  the  person  to  whom  the  Commission  should  go,  that 
his  Exy  did  [not]  remember  your  reasons  for  declineing  accept- 
ing the  Commission  from  him.  As  I  had  no  orders  to  his 
Exy  on  this  head,  I  only  declared  I  was  not  acquainted  with 
your  apprehensions.  I  submit  whether  it  may  not  be  proper  to 
communicate  them  to  me,  which  with  a  brief  letter  to  His  Excel- 
lency on  that  head  acknowledging  his  favour  therein  may  be  a 
good  introduction  to  talk  on  that  matter.  .  .  ."^  "I  am  just 
returned  from  the  Council,"  he  added  the  next  day  with  friendly 
repetition,  "  where  the  affair  was  agreed  to  nemine  contradi- 
cente,  Mr.  Murray  was  indisposed  so  not  there  .  .  .  the  Ex- 
amples collected  were  of  use.  ...  I  think  it  highly  necessary 
to  root  out  those  apprehensions  exprest  to  me,  it's  impossible  in 
person  to  do  it  at  this  time  of  year.  But  a  Letter  Carefully 
Penned  I  believe  may  do  as  well,  —  if  you  find  anything  in 
your  Letters  that  you  think  could  give  offense,  that  together 
with  this  favour  of  the  Commission  I  think  may  be  the  foun- 
dation of  this  Letter.     If  you  can  see  nothing,  then  cite  me  for 

^  January  2,  1750/ i. 


A  Colonial  Politician  247 

having  given  you  the  hint  .  .  .  and  say  that  the  Lowness  of 
Spirits  by  the  Indisposition  of  your  daughter  might  have  suf- 
fered something  to  be  expressed  by  you  that  were  it  not  for  that 
you  should  not  have  done  so.  I  beg  pardon  for  going  so  far 
in  a  thing  that  you  knew  much  better  how  to  do  also  to  render 
him  thanks  for  what  he  talked  to  me  on  the  head  of  the  Secre- 
taryship of  Indian  affairs,  with  a  brief  hint  of  the  reasons  of 
your  declineing  them  &  your  readyness  now  to  accept  the 
Commission  &  if  he  will  join  your  son  in  it  will  greatly  in- 
crease the  favour.  .  .  .  When  these  apprehensions  are  fully 
removed  &  that  Commission  had  I  am  in  .  .  .  hopes  that 
.  .  .  the  Government  shall  be  Left  in  your  hands  as  presi- 
dent ...  if  your  letter  .  .  .  even  went  so  far  as  to  express  an 
abhorrence  of  the  ungrateful  return  of  a  Certain  person,  .  .  . 
I  believe  it  would  not  be  amiss.  ..." 

Despite  this  disinterested  insistence,  Colden  softened  into 
neither  impetuous  denial  nor  warm  apology.  "Your  Excel- 
lency will  never  find  me  ungratefull,"  he  calmly  assured  the 
governor,  "Mr.  Alexander  tells  me,"  he  went  on,  "that  Your 
Excellency  was  displeased  with  somthing  in  my  letter.  .  .  . 
This  has  given  me  a  great  deal  of  both  surprise  &  uneasiness. 
I  am  sure  nothing  could  have  been  further  from  my  intention 
than  writing  or  doing  anything  that  I  thought  could  be  dis- 
agreeable ...  to  you  &  therefor  I  must  think  that  your  Excellency 
will  .  .  .  soon  be  convinced  it  can  bear  no  such  construction 
however  unhappy  I  may  have  been  in  expressing  myself  &  for 
which  the  circumstances  of  my  family  at  the  time  may  plead. 
.  .  .  Pray  offer  my  Duty  to  Mrs.  Chnton  and  please  to 
make  my  acknowledgements  to  her  friendly  good  offices  on 
many  occasions.  .  .  ."  "Your  late  acts  of  particular  friend- 
ship," he  wrote  to  Alexander  the  same  day,^  "  are  such  as  I 
cannot  properly  acknowledge  in  words  and  I  believe  you  do 

1  January  17,  1750/  i. 


248  Cadwallader  Colden 

not  expect  I  should.  Some  part  of  your  letter  really  surprised 
me  ...  for  I  had  no  intention  to  displease  him  but  otherwise. 
I  have  lookt  over  my  Copies  and  cannot  discover  any  reason 
for  his  displeasure  &  therefore,  beg  of  you  to  desire  a  sight 
of  my  letter  &  to  inform  the  Govr  that  I  desire  you  to  do  it 
that  I  may  excuse  myself.  .  .  .  My  last  letters  were  to  be  a 
foundation  of  his  for  the  D  of  B  &  Lds  of  Trade  in  excuse 
for  his  meeting  the  Assembly  &  receiving  the  Sallary  in  the 
manner  he  did.  My  intention  was  to  make  the  best  excuse 
consistent  with  truth  &  which  I  still  think  I  did.  Going  from 
the  truth  could  neither  be  of  use  to  him  nor  me,  therefor,  I 
hope  he  did  not  take  amiss  my  keeping  close  to  it.  .  .  . 

"As  to  the  Secretary's  oflEice  for  Indian  affairs  I  shall  truly 
tell  you  my  past  thoughts,  i.  No  profits  besides  the  Sallary  of 
the  office  can  attend  the  execution  of  it.  2.  The  Govr's  Com- 
mission cannot  give  the  Sallary  annexed  to  it.  3.  As  there  had 
been  great  pains  taken  to  give  the  D  of  B  and  N  and  Mr.  Pel- 
ham  prejudices  against  me  ...  I  could  not  expect  that  any- 
thing would  be  done  by  the  Ministry  in  my  favour  till  these 
prejudices  were  removed.  ..."  This  letter  Alexander  decided 
to  send  to  the  governor,  and  when  Ayscough,  who  acted  as 
messenger,  returned  it,  he  also  brought  the  cause  of  offence 
which  he  asked  Alexander  to  read.  And  Alexander  did  read 
it  over  and  over  again  without  finding,  as  he  told  Ayscough, 
an  objectionable  word.  This  ended  the  episode;  but  before 
he  left,  Ayscough  informed  Colden 's  good  friend  that  the  mayor 
had  asked  and  received  the  promise  of  the  secretaryship  of 
Indian  affairs.  "I  believe,"  said  Alexander,  "that  he  saw  me 
change  colour." 

In  December,  1750,  CUnton  had  applied  for  leave  of  absence 
for  twelve  months,  in  order  to  regain  his  health  and  arrange  his 
private  affairs.  Still  unwilling  to  leave  Colden,  and  still  afraid 
to  follow  Colden's  advice,  it  was  probably  at  his  suggestion  that 


A  Colonial  Politician  249 

Chief  Justice  Morris  and  two  of  Clinton's  agents  presented 
certain  questions  to  tlie  solicitor  general  and  attorney  general 
of  England.  Though  Clinton's  commission  empowered  him 
expressly  to  suspend  the  lieutenant-governor,  and  appoint 
another  in  his  place,  and  provided  for  the  succession  in  case  of 
the  governor's  death,  or  absence,  were  such  an  appointment 
not  made,  they  nevertheless  asked:  Could  Clinton  bring  De- 
lancey's  commission  home,  could  he  disregard  it  and  appoint 
another,  or  could  he  swear  Delancey  in,  and  then  suspend  him 
and  name  a  successor  ?  The  significant  clause  of  the  commission 
was  prefixed,  but  the  two  law  officers  had  replied  that  Clinton 
should  beg  the  king  to  appoint  another  or  empower  him  to  do 
so,  and  Catherwood  at  once  memorialized  the  king  accord- 
ingly/ Meanwhile,  Clinton  seemed  in  actual  terror  of  Delancey. 
He  was  afraid  to  be  left  alone  in  the  city  with  him,  and  when 
Alexander  was  about  to  leave  for  "the  Jersies,"  of  whose  coun- 
cil he  was  also  a  member,  both  he  and  Clinton  implored  Colden's 
presence. 

Clinton,  indeed,  had  still  no  reason  to  feel  encouraged.  As 
far  as  exact  knowledge  went  the  success  of  Morris's  mission 
was  uncertain  after  nearly  two  years'  work,  and  the  report  of 
the  Board  of  Trade  had  only  just  reached  the  Privy  Council. 
Something  of  its  tenor  was  indicated,  to  be  sure,  by  the  confirma- 
tion of  CHnton's  nominees,  Holland,  Alexander,  and  Johnson, 
while  the  assembly's  agent,  Mr.  Charles,  had  hinted  of  minis- 
terial disapproval  of  his  clients.  But  he  had  been  unable  either 
to  get  a  copy  of  the  report,  or  learn  one  of  its  provisions.  He 
could  only  tell  of  its  size.  It  consisted  of  a  whole  quire  of  paper, 
he  reported,  with  quires  more  as  appendix,  and  on  another 
occasion  he  announced  with  regret  that  it  was  contained  in 
whole  volumes  of  paper  of  which  he  was  denied  a  sight.  There 
was  no  reason,  moreover,  why  the  consideration  of  this  huge 
1  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  612-614. 


250  Cadwallader  Colden 

document  should  take  less  time  than  its  compilation.  Indeed, 
it  might  take  more,  for  Bedford,  no  longer  able  to  stand  New- 
castle's fussy  jealousy,  had  resigned,  and  there  had  been  other 
changes  in  the  ministry  to  which  Clinton  had  appealed.  Hali- 
fax, who  was  at  least  businesslike  and  ambitious  for  his  coun- 
try as  well  as  himself,  fortunately  remained  at  the  head  of  Board 
of  Trade,  but  unfortunately,  Bedford,  a  peer  of  ability  and  real, 
if  narrow,  patriotism,  was  succeeded  by  Robert  Darcey,  Earl 
of  Holdemess,  who  up  to  that  time  had  been  too  much  absorbed 
in  private  theatricals  and  masquerades  to  have  given  much 
time  to  affairs  of  state.  "In  reality  he  did  justice  to  himself 
and  his  patrons,"  Walpole  says,  "for  he  seemed  ashamed  of 
being  made  so  considerable  for  no  reason,  but  because  he  was 
so  inconsiderable."  Amid  so  much  uncertainty,  one  thing, 
however,  seemed  certain.  Robert  Hunter  Morris  was  to  be 
lieutenant-governor  of  New  York,  and  Colden  was  to  gain  noth- 
ing from  the  agitation  which  he  had  done  more  than  any  one  man 
to  bring  about.  This  news  came  authoritatively  from  Major 
Rutherford,  who  was  in  London  on  leave,  and  he  reported  as 
well  that  the  ministry  had  received  a  bad  impression  of  his 
friend.  About  this  time  also  Colden  was  disappointed  in  an 
application  for  the  position  of  postmaster  general.  For 
though  he  had  written  Alexander,  less  than  a  year  before,  that 
he  expected  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  Hfe  in  industrious  retire- 
ment, he  had  evidently  changed  his  mind.  Too  much  of  a 
pedant  to  be  a  skilful  poHtician,  Colden  was  yet  too  much  of  a 
politician  to  be  an  entirely  absorbed  philosopher.  He  had, 
however,  been  working  on  a  subject  that  touched  both  phases 
of  his  temperament. 

Since  the  close  of  King  George's  war  the  New  York  adminis- 
tration had  been  playing  an  admirable  part  in  Indian  affairs. 
Wherever  France  intruded,  there  New  York  tried  to  meet 
her  or  see  that  she  was  met,  while  using  every  argument  to 


A  Colonial  Politician  251 

instill  a  like  sense  of  responsibility  in  the  other  colonies. 
A  special  effort  had  been  made  to  bring  together  at  Albany, 
this  summer  of  1 751,  all  the  colonial  governors  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Indians  in  their  alliance.  But  though  the 
governors  were  vi^illing,  their  assemblies  were  not,  and  South 
CaroUna,  with  six  Catawbas,  and  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut, with  no  Indians  at  all,  were  alone  represented.  Indeed, 
CUnton's  own  assembly  refused  to  give  more  than  the  ;^i5o 
usually  given  for  the  annual  Indian  treaty,  until  pressure  of 
some  sort  sent  the  speaker  to  Chnton  to  say  that  the  treasurer 
should  be  directed  to  advance  ;i^200  more.  And  this,  though 
it  was  the  first  treaty  in  four  years.  The  fact  was  that  the 
assembly  had  never  forgiven  the  transfer  of  Indian  management 
from  their  friends,  the  commissioners,  to  Johnson,  which  had 
been  at  least  in  part  the  result  of  Golden 's  first  advice  to  Clinton. 
Johnson  was  a  trader  himself,  and  many  Indians  whose  way  took 
them  by  his  house  found  it  unnecessary  to  go  to  Albany,  or  even 
to  Oswego,  where  a  colony  of  traders  whose  interest  was  not  that 
of  the  Indians  had  sprung  up.  Besides,  Johnson  was  unas- 
sailably  honest  and  independent.  So  his  salary  was  unpaid  long 
after  much  later  debts  had  been  settled,  his  services  in  keeping 
the  Iroquois  from  going  to  Canada  to  make  a  separate  peace 
were  told  over  to  unenthusiastic  ears,  and  the  administration's 
broad  Indian  poHcy  was  regarded  with  perfect  indifference. 

Such  as  it  was,  the  Indian  conference  was  held  in  July,  and 
while  still  full  of  its  suggestions  Colden,  at  Chnton's  request, 
wrote  a  "state"  of  Indian  affairs  with  propositions  for  their 
betterment.  The  result  was  perhaps  one  of  the  earliest  pleas 
for  the  treatment  of  the  Indian  as  a  man  and  a  brother.  As 
matters  stood,  Colden  made  it  clear,  he  was  roundly  cheated, 
the  Oswego  set  and  the  Albany  set  vying  to  fleece  him,  and  yet 
he  was  almost  totally  deprived  of  the  benefits  of  the  law.  His 
word  was  not  admitted  as  evidence,  and  he  was  obliged  to  fee 


252  Cadwallader  C olden 

a  lawyer,  take  out  a  writ,  file  a  declaration,  and  then  wait  for 
justice,  sometimes  for  a  year.  And  while  the  English  and 
Dutch  were  thus  bullying  him  to  their  liking,  the  French  were 
planning  the  destruction  of  his  independence  with  more  system, 
but  equal  indifference  to  his  welfare.  They  proposed  to  have 
a  fort  and  trading  posts  at  each  harbor  on  the  Great  Lakes, 
where  they  might  first  win  the  Indians  by  selling  under  cost, 
and  then,  when  strong  enough,  sell  at  a  profit  and  force  them  to 
buy.  The  French  commandant  at  Niagara,  for  instance,  was 
told  to  undersell  the  English,  though  it  cost  thirty  thousand 
livres.  Golden,  however,  still  thought  that  the  French  could 
be  easily  beaten  in  the  struggle  for  Indian  control.  Given,  he 
said,  Indian  goods  free  of  duties;  Indian  equality  before  the 
law ;  a  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  of  ability,  with  no  trading 
connections,  with  authority  to  prevent  and  redress  grievances, 
and  with  a  good  salary  and  provisions  for  assistance;  as  many 
missionaries  as  possible,  but  subject  to  the  superintendent; 
a  sloop  to  cruise  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  another  fort  on  its  south- 
ern shore ;  and,  finally,  to  pay  for  all  this,  a  duty  on  the  consump- 
tion of  wine  and  spirits,  and  he  would  answer  for  a  vast  improve- 
ment in  the  Indians  themselves  and  their  loyalty  to  the  English.* 
But  when,  at  the  autumn  session,  GUnton  asked  the  assembly 
for  an  appropriation  for  Indian  affairs,  it  was  refused  unless 
it  could  be  expended  by  assembly  nominees ;  and  this  Glinton 
refused,  especially  as  some  or  all  of  these  were  engaged  in  the 
trade  between  Albany  and  Ganada. 

Glinton 's  cabinet  now  contained  more  than  one,  or  even  two, 
members.  In  addition  to  Holland,  Alexander,  Johnson,  and 
Rutherford,  —  who,  to  be  sure,  was  away,  —  the  deaths  of  Attor- 
ney General  Bradford  and  Judge  Phillipse  during  the  summer 
had  given  Glinton  an  opportunity  to  make  William  Smith  and 
John  Chambers  his  official  supporters.  Still,  Alexander  wrote 
1 N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  VI,  738-747. 


A  Colonial  Politician  253 

Colden  as  usual  that  his  presence  at  the  opening  of  the  autumn 
session  of  the  assembly  was  absolutely  necessary.  It  was  well, 
however,  that  Colden  thought  otherwise,  for  among  these  new 
men,  conservative  but  of  naturally  Whig  sympathies  and  in- 
fluenced by  no  quixotic  disregard  of  expediency,  Colden's 
stifif  devotion  to  a  narrow  governmental  ideal  would  have  found 
little  sympathy.  Hence  with  all  the  governor's  new  strength, 
Delancey  held  his  own  in  that  assembly,  and  Clinton  went  with- 
out copies  of  the  assembly's  addresses;  without  a  support  bill 
conforming  to  the  commission  and  instructions;  without  an 
Indian  appropriation;  and  never  complained  because  the  as- 
sembly found  fault  with  everything  from  the  way  he  had  sent 
out  the  notices  to  the  way  in  which  he  had  managed  the  Indians. 
But  having  been  thus  submissive,  he  dissolved  them  without 
the  least  warning,  and  to  their  great  discomfiture  and  the  general 
amusement. 

But  as  the  faction  controlled  the  elections,  the  dissolution 
did  little  good.  And  control  them  they  did,  for  though  the 
administration  made  most  elaborate  plans  for  the  campaign, 
out  of  twenty-seven  members  twelve  returned  were  relatives 
or  intimate  friends  of  Delancey.  Some  of  these,  moreover, 
controlled  the  votes  of  a  part  of  the  remaining  fifteen,  so  that  a 
majority  was  more  than  assured.  In  England,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  case  of  Clinton  vs.  Delancey  was  making  some  pro- 
gress. The  Privy  Council  had  actually  rushed  the  consideration 
of  the  Board  of  Trade's  report,  approved  it  the  preceding 
August,  and  ordered  the  board  to  draught  instructions  embody- 
ing their  suggestions.  But  New  York  only  knew  that  Robert 
Hunter  Morris  was  unquestionably  not  going  to  be  lieutenant- 
governor  of  the  province.  Early  in  1752,  however,  Catherwood 
had  written  of  an  unusually  satisfactory  interview  with  Halifax. 
His  Lordship  had  expressed  great  regard  for  Clinton,  had  shown 
much  interest  in  his  problems,  and  had  asked  many  pertinent 


254  Cadwallader  Colden 

questions,  thus  giving  the  agent  an  opportunity  which,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  he  had  improved  to  the  utmost.  He 
had,  he  said,  assured  his  Lordship  that,  if  there  was  any  objec- 
tion to  Chief  Justice  Morris,  Mr.  Colden  would  fill  the  office  of 
lieutenant-governor  with  dignity,  while  he  could  doubtless 
bring  the  long  struggle  with  the  assembly  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion. And  when  Hahfax  had  asked  how  he  could  do  this 
alone,  when  "a  man  of  quality"  had  failed  to  do  it  with  his 
assistance,  Catherwood  promptly  replied  that  his  failure  was 
due  to  the  policy  of  the  English  government.  Clinton,  too, 
was  again  urging  Colden's  appointment  with  enthusiastic 
friendliness,  even  though  he  was  smarting  under  the  suspicion 
that  Colden  had  not  treated  him  well  in  regard  to  the  province 
lands.  Certain  personal  friends  who  wanted  land  themselves 
had  told  the  governor  that  Colden  was  holding  up  patents  in  order 
to  get  the  fees  after  Clinton  had  left  the  province,  and  could 
no  longer  claim  his  share.  Clinton  did  not  know  whether  to 
beUeve  them  or  not,  and  for  days  his  private  secretary  was  kept 
busy  bringing  complaints  from  the  Fort  to  Mr.  Alexander,  and 
returning  with  explanations.  All  of  which  Colden  himself  took 
coolly  enough.  Apparently  Alexander's  comforting  declara- 
tion that  he  believed  the  misunderstanding  due  "to  meer  mis- 
apprehension and  lowness  of  Spirits  by  his  being  alone  without 
cheerful  company"  was  not  necessary. 

In  truth,  neither  depression  nor  dull  society  nor  the  slander 
of  the  disappointed  was  the  reason  for  Clinton's  instinctive 
uneasiness.  Colden  had  become  tired  of  him  and  his  concerns, 
and  he  doubtless  showed  it.  To  some  extent  weariness  must 
have  been  the  portion  of  every  one  interested  in  the  Board  of 
Trade's  report.  For  in  New  York  the  summer  of  1752  was  as 
barren  of  news  as  had  been  the  summer  of  1751.  Nor  did  they 
know  much  more  at  home.  Newcastle  had  gone  to  Hanover 
with  the  king,  having  valiantly  refused  to  set  foot  in  any  boat 


A  Colonial  Polilician  255 

but  Lord  Cardigan's  yacht,  which  had  lately  escaped  a  great 
storm ;  Holderness  was  playing  blindman's  buff  at  Tunbridge, 
for  which  he  was  later  in  disgrace;  and  London  seemed 
asleep. 

But  what  annoyed  Golden  most  was  Clinton's  vacillation. 
Months  before  he  had  written  that  if  the  next  ship  failed  to  bring 
definite  news  he  would  suspend  Delancey  immediately.  Yet  he 
was  still  asking  the  same  questions  about  his  ability  to  do  so, 
still  receiving  a  fine  assortment  of  answers.  One  day  in  July 
the  governor,  Judge  Chambers,  and  Alexander  lunched  at  a 
tavern,  and  decided  after  a  most  silly  discussion  that  the  chief 
justice  must  be  summoned  to  take  the  oaths  at  once ;  and  then 
the  same  three,  with  the  mayor  and  Receiver  General  Kennedy, 
dined  at  another  tavern,  and  decided  to  wait  until  the  next  ship 
arrived  from  England.^  To  Golden,  whose  opinion  had  never 
changed,  such  hesitation  was  maddening.  Naturally  enough, 
he  determined  not  to  go  down  for  the  assembly,  but  CUnton 
was  as  aggrieved  as  if  such  a  refusal  were  a  new  thing,  and 
wrote  begging  Alexander  to  urge  him  to  change  his  mind. 
Golden  himself,  he  recalled,  had  said  that,  if  he  should  desert 
the  governor  now,  it  might  be  well  said  that  he  had  served  him 
before  for  "  Lucre. "  ^  Nevertheless,  Golden  was  absent  from  the 
short  session,  with  its  short  curt  speech,  its  shorter  address, 
presented  unheralded,  the  governor's  still  shorter  reply,  and  his 
prompt  adjournment  after  the  passage  of  the  most  necessary 
bills  in  the  old  form.  For  though  GHnton  had  frequently 
protested  that  he  would  not  call  the  new  assembly  together 
before  leaving,  he  had  been  obliged  as  usual  to  alter  his 
plans. 

Clinton  was  right  in  saying  that  Golden  had  given  his  enemies 
cause  for  suspicion.     These  now  said  that  he  had  thrown  the 

*  Alexander  to  Colden,  July  10,  1752. 

^  Governor  Clinton  to  Alexander,  October  7,  1752. 


256  Cadwallader  Colden 

governor  over  the  moment  he  found  out  that  his  success  in 
making  New  York  unpleasant  to  Clinton  and  Clinton  contemp- 
tible to  the  ministry  was  not  to  be  rewarded.  But  that  Colden 
had  championed  prerogative  for  personal  reasons  only,  is  un- 
thinkable. Ambitious  as  he  might  be,  he  was  sincerely  react- 
tionary  in  his  politics,  and  could  not  have  followed  a  different  Hne 
of  action  had  he  tried.  On  the  other  hand,  he  showed  the  lack 
of  a  fine  sense  of  honour  in  his  treatment  of  CUnton.  For,  as 
will  be  seen,  he  did  even  more  than  drop  him. 

At  last,  convinced  that  he  could  not  be  lieutenant-governor, 
in  August,  1752,  Colden  applied  to  Halifax  for  a  salary  out  of 
the  quit-rents  as  surveyor  general.  This  his  Lordship  pro- 
nounced impossible,  as  the  accounts  of  the  auditor  general 
proved  that  already  the  pay  roll  of  the  New  York  establish- 
ment exceeded  its  income.  He  also  declined  discussing  New 
York  affairs  in  detail,  the  appointment  of  Clinton's  successor 
making  it,  he  said,  unnecessary  for  him  to  go  into  "so  distant 
a  Subject."  But  he  commended  Colden's  course,  somewhat 
perfunctorily,  it  is  true,  and  assured  him  that  while  it  had  been 
deemed  impolitic  to  permit  the  suspension  of  Delancey,  it  was 
certainly  not  because  Colden  had  been  considered  unfit  to  pre- 
side over  the  government.  At  this  mild  praise  Colden  was 
much  pleased,  and  did  not  require  CUnton 's  admonition  to 
write  again  at  once.  For  CHnton  was  positively  eager  with 
delight  over  the  possible  improvement  in  his  friend's  prospects, 
and  was  planning  to  further  it  all  he  could  when  he  went  home. 
A  more  encouraging  letter  arrived  in  September,  and  then, 
after  waiting  six  months  or  more,  Colden  wrote  again.  He  also 
asked  CoUinson  to  find  out  if  his  appeal  was  received,  adding 
that,  as  the  thought  that  he  had  advised  Clinton  might 
affect  it,  he  would  say  that  many  things  had  been  done  without 
his  knowledge  and  others  without  his  advice.  When,  more- 
over, he  learned  how  CoUinson  had  been  received  by  Halifax, 


A  Colonial  Politician  257 

"in  a  very  affable  manner";  how  "many  Hansome  things," 
his  Lordship  had  said  of  Golden  himself;  how  he  regretted 
that  he  had  "embarked  with  the  late  Governour,"  though  the 
governor  "otherwise  might  have  gone  to  greater  lengths"; 
and  how  unsatisfactory  was  the  financial  prospect  since  Mr. 
Pelham's  death,  Golden  wrote  his  friend  an  account  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  late  administration/  The  principal  charges 
against  Glinton,  he  affirmed,  were  his  payment  of  the  forces 
and  his  sale  of  offices,  and  he  could  prove  by  writing  under 
GUnton's  hand,  that  in  both  these  points  his  own  advice  had 
been  rejected.  This  was  all  very  well.  It  is  exasperating  to 
suffer  for  having  advised  what  you  opposed,  but  if  Golden  did 
not  know  what  he  was  doing  when  he  assumed  the  responsi- 
bility for  GUnton's  administration,  he  must  have  known  very 
soon  after,  and,  having  chosen  his  part,  he  should  have  been 
brave  enough  to  accept  the  consequences. 

Meanwhile,  the  GHnton  administration  had  come  to  its  end. 
The  confirmation  of  William  Smith  as  a  member  of  council 
against  the  candidacy  of  Golonel  Lewis  Morris  and  OUver  De- 
lancey  had  been  another  intimation  of  the  ministry's  intention, 
and  the  last  meeting  of  the  assembly  under  GHnton  was  a  love 
feast.  An  even  more  significant  fact  was  the  transmutation 
of  Johnson  into  a  popular  favourite.  Glinton,  urged  to  meet 
the  Indians,  had  said  that  under  the  circumstances  he  would 
meet  them  only  by  commission,  and  then,  in  all  seriousness, 
he  was  presented  with  a  joint  address  signed  by  James  Delancey 
and  David  Jones,  humbly  hoping  he  would  "  commissionate " 
WiUiam  Johnson  as  the  most  popular  person  to  represent  him. 
Golden  was  greatly  encouraged.  Evidently  prerogative  was  to 
be  upheld,  and  the  assembly  knew  it,  and  if  it  was,  who  so 
able  to  assist  the  new  governor  as  himself  ?    He  thought,  as  he 

^  October  4,  1754. 


258  Cadwallader  Colden 

afterward  told  Franklin,  that  he  would  be  obliged  to  stay  in 
New  York,  for  Halifax  certainly  appreciated  his  devotion  to 
principle.  And  then  that  happened  which  none  could  have 
foreseen.  Sir  Danvers  Osborne  arrived,  bearing  instructions 
which,  Walpole  said,  "seemed  better  calculated  for  the  latitude 
of  Mexico  and  for  a  Spanish  tribunal  than  for  a  free,  rich  British 
settlement,"  and  took  the  oaths  of  his  office.  Walpole's  opinion 
was  that  of  an  extreme  Whig,  who  knew  Httle  of  American  con- 
ditions, but  the  instructions  were  sufficiently  severe,  and  when 
Osborne,  naturally  diffident,  and  in  deep  personal  grief,  saw 
the  open  disrespect  accorded  to  his  predecessor  by  the  people  on 
the  day  of  his  inauguration,  and  reaUzed  the  part  he  had  to  play, 
he  could  not  stand  the  strain  and  committed  suicide  early  the 
next  morning. 

This  made  James  Delancey  the  head  of  the  province  after 
all,  and  Colden  promptly  retired,  says  the  continuation  of 
Smith's  history,  "  cheated  by  his  friends  and  disappointed  by 
the  administration,  under  the  scoff  of  his  enemies  and  the  gen- 
eral contempt  of  the  people."  *  The  first  statement,  at  least, 
is  not  true.  Colden's  friends  were  friends  for  life,  and  for  the 
next  seven  years  they  kept  him,  as  they  had  before,  completely 
in  touch  with  the  life  of  which  he  was  no  longer  a  part.  But 
with  the  majority  his  reputation  was  fixed  for  the  bad ;  he  had 
lost  his  opportunities  so  entirely  that  his  greatest  opportunity, 
which  was  to  come,  was  scarcely  to  be  an  opportunity  at  all, 
men's  minds  had  hardened  toward  him  to  such  a  degree ;  and, 
above  all,  with  all  his  interests,  all  his  learning,  all  his  real 
worth,  he  had  learned  no  lesson  from  experience.  Of  how 
to  subordinate  himself,  how  to  study  another's  point  of  view, 
how  to  value  his  opponents  and  even  his  inferiors,  or,  indeed, 
how  necessary  it  was  to  learn  these  things,  he  was  as  ignorant 

*  Smith's  History,  II,  162. 


A  Colonial  Politician  259 

as  in  the  beginning.  And  thus  one  link,  and  an  important  one, 
had  been  forged  in  that  chain  which  was  to  drag  England  and 
her  American  colonies  apart,  for  Golden  had  retired  as  a  poli- 
tician, but  he  was  to  reappear  as  chief  of  the  province,  and^ 
with  all  his  prejudices  and  Umitations,  was  to  attempt  to  guide 
her  through  the  most  critical  period  of  her  history. 


A  COLONIAL  EXECUTIVE 


It  is  one  thing  for  a  man  to  win  a  coveted  position  in  the 
presence  of  his  enemies,  and  to  the  discomfiture  of  his  rival ; 
it  is  quite  another  when,  long  after  his  own  defeat,  he  slips  by 
mere  right  of  succession  into  the  place  made  vacant  by  the  death 
of  his  quondam  antagonist,  now  eternally  triumphant.  So 
Cadwallader  Golden  must  have  thought  when  one  day  in 
August,  1760,  an  express  came  to  his  Ulster  manor  house  with 
the  news  that  James  Delancey  had  suddenly  died,  and  that  as 
senior  councillor  the  headship  of  the  administration  was. his. 
For  many  years  his  zeal  for  the  crown,  displayed  with  con- 
scientious tactlessness,  had  rendered  him  the  most  unpopu- 
lar man  in  the  province;  for  many  years  with  unimpeachable 
logic  he  had  demonstrated  to  an  English  ministry  his  own 
loyalty  and  Delancey's  poHtical  pHability;  for  many  years  he 
had  sought  the  lieutenant-governorship,  first  merely  to  satisfy 
his  own  honest  ambition,  but  later,  to  disprove  the  all  too  appar- 
ent truth,  that  England  gave  her  favours  as  it  suited  her  con- 
venience or  caprice,  and  not  as  justice  demanded.  Yet  an  un- 
grateful government  had  given  the  honour  to  Delancey  himself, 
and  had  disregarded  all  prayers  for  its  revocation.  Golden, 
however,  did  not  despair  until  by  the  death  of  Sir  Danvers 
Osborne,  the  newly  arrived  governor,  Delancey  became  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  province.  Then  at  last  he  felt  that  for 
him  political  ambition  had  become  an  absurdity.  He  fled  the 
town,  and,   save    on    special   occasions,   had  never  returned. 

260 


A  Colonial  Executive  261 

But  he  was  compelled  to  hear  how  Delancey  had  played  his 
part ;  how  he  made  many  of  the  same  demands,  and  said  many 
of  the  same  things  which  had  been  called  outrageous  when  made 
or  said  by  Golden  and  Clinton ;  and  how  his  admiring  followers 
insisted  that  his  apparent  inconsistency  was  mere  politic  def- 
erence to  a  power  that  he  would  be  sure  to  manipulate  for  their 
benefit.  Fortunately,  Golden  had  little  imagination,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  never  permitted  himself  to  criticise  the  judg- 
ment of  his  superiors.  Hence,  though  the  summons  found  him 
engaged  in  a  dozen  schemes  of  experiment  and  research,  under- 
taken in  the  hope  of  yet  discovering  some  great  truth  which 
should  rescue  his  name  from  the  obscurity  he  dreaded,  he  threw 
them  lightly  aside,  and  reentered  his  old  world  with  enthusiasm, 
his  old  aims  reviving  and  new  schemes  for  their  accomplish- 
ment springing  to  Hfe  as  he  went.  This  showed  unusual 
adaptability  for  a  man  of  seventy-three;  and  for  one  whose 
memories  were  so  far  from  inspiring,  it  was  marvellous.  Here 
at  last,  he  said  to  himself,  was  an  opportunity  to  realize  his 
political  ideals,  to  strengthen  the  prerogative,  to  work  for  the 
crown,  and  so  for  its  subjects ;  yet  he  would  use  it  with  such 
complaisance  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  most  radical 
"Independent"  to  find  fault;  here  was  an  excuse  for  renewing 
his  correspondence  with  some  of  the  great  men  of  England; 
above  all,  here  was  an  opportunity  to  press  his  claims  to  be 
lieutenant-governor,  and  perhaps  this  time  they  would  be  satis- 
fied. 

Fate  had  chosen  for  his  return  a  moment  which  we  would 
now  call  psychologic.  One  of  the  most  brilliant  contests  that 
England  had  ever  waged,  with  seats  of  war  in  three  continents, 
was  nearly  over;  its  cHmax  in  America  was  but  three  weeks 
away.  That  event,  which  Golden  himself  had  made  his  first 
political  object  forty  years  before,  and  for  which  he  had  worked 
ever  since,  that  event  for  which  American  mothers  had  long 


262  Cadivallader  Colden 

taught  their  children  to  pray,  was  about  to  be  consummated 
and  New  France  was  to  disappear.  And  though  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  campaign  of  which  this  was  the  outcome  had  been 
due  largely  to  the  enthusiasm  of  an  Englishman,  and  though 
English  blood  and  EngHsh  money  had  been  lavishly  expended 
on  the  American  wing  of  the  conflict,  the  colonies  had  responded 
nobly  to  Pitt's  requisitions,  and  felt  justly  proud  of  the  part 
they  had  taken.  To  be  sure,  the  successful  engagements  had 
been  fought  by  British  regulars  alone,  and  the  provincials  had 
been  present  at  the  defeats.  But  while  the  generals  laid  the 
blame  on  the  lack  of  discipUne  in  the  volunteer  ranks,  every 
colonial  had  something  to  say  of  the  poor  strategy,  the  inertia, 
and  even  the  downright  cowardice  of  some  of  the  British  com- 
manders. Ten  thousand  provincials  had  exclaimed  with  amaze- 
ment when  Abercrombie  gave  orders  for  the  retreat  at  Ticon- 
deroga,  and  a  little  book  criticising  the  conduct  of  the  war  in 
America,  written  by  an  American  civilian,  was  published  and 
widely  read  in  England.^  On  the  other  hand,  many  a  British 
ofl&cer  had  learned  to  respect  the  undoubted  courage  he  saw  in 
the  colonial  lines,  and  such  daring  as  Wolfe's  could  not  fail  to 
win  enthusiastic  appreciation  even  among  the  matter-of-fact 
farmers  and  merchants  of  New  England.  In  short,  the  war  had 
made  Englishmen  on  either  side  the  Atlantic  more  real  to  each 
other.  But  it  was  the  ultimate  rather  than  the  immediate 
results  of  the  conquest  of  Canada  that  were  to  change  the  des- 
tiny of  nations,  and  of  these,  no  one,  not  even  Colden,  was 
thinking  just  then. 

Yet  in  Colden's  own  colony  the  Crown,  which  he  had  long 
prophesied  might  some  day  see  its  American  dependencies 

^  "  A  Review  of  the  Military  Operations  in  North  America,"  etc.,  written  by 
William  Livingston  or  the  younger  Smith  and  published  anonymously  in  1758. 
See  note  on  this  subject  in  appendix  to  Jones's  "  History  of  New  York  during 
the  Revolutionary  War,"  p.  426. 


A  Colonial  Executive  263 

become  independent,  had  lost  ground  during  his  retirement. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  continuous  complaint  of  the 
Clinton-Colden  administration  had  neither  brought  honours 
to  the  plaintiffs  nor  disgrace  to  Chief  Justice  Delancey,  who 
was  named  as  principal  defendant.  Instead,  new  instruc- 
tions had  been  issued  to  the  new  governor  enforcing  the  obser- 
vance of  the  old,  especially  those  on  finance,  with  penalties  so 
severe  that  when  Sir  Danvers  had  seen  the  sort  of  men  with 
v^hom  he  must  deal,  he  literally  died  rather  than  fight  it  out. 
His  death  brought  about  a  situation  full  of  interest,  for  it  left 
the  government  in  Delancey's  hand,  and  made  him  the  pre- 
sumptive champion  of  the  system  on  which  he  had  led  the 
attack.  But  his  enemies  had  no  cause  to  congratulate  them- 
selves. Delancey  was  too  easily  dominant  in  New  York,  his 
personal  popularity  was  too  transcendant,  and  the  social  leader- 
ship of  his  family  too  firmly  grounded,  for  him  to  feel  the  slight- 
est anxiety.  At  first  he  talked  the  language  of  his  predecessors, 
but  it  was  understood  to  be  part  of  the  game,  and  there  was  no 
murmuring,  a  mark  of  confidence  which  proved  to  be  well  placed, 
for  while  the  legislature  disregarded  the  instructions  as  before, 
he  disregarded  the  penalties  which  were  his  to  inflict,  and  long 
before  his  death  the  home  government  had  ceased  to  command 
or  even  urge  the  revival  of  the  fiscal  regulations  in  force  when 
the  instructions  were  framed.  Nor  were  these  ever  pressed 
again;    the  assembly  had  won  the  control  of  the  purse. 

Delancey  was  apparently,  indeed,  a  law  unto  himself. 
Though  it  was  an  open  secret  that  he  bought  the  return  of 
*'01d  Mother  Hardy,"  the  only  governor  appointed  during  his 
seven  years'  administration ;  though  he  swindled  a  whole  regi- 
ment out  of  its  rights  with  consummate  effrontery;  though 
he  dared  retain  his  office  of  chief  justice  without  performing 
its  duties,  and  so  was  chief  justice,  chancellor,  and  governor 
all  at  once;   and  though  he  made  many  slips  as  commander- 


264  Cadwallader  C olden 

in-chief,  he  reached  almost  the  close  of  his  career  without  re- 
ceiving a  sensible  check.  Some  of  the  most  soUd  men  in  the 
colony,  to  be  sure,  were  not  his  friends.  To  these  his  shallow 
briUiancy,  his  surface  good-nature,  his  official  dishonesty,  were 
most  distasteful,  but  they  had  little  liking  or  aptitude  for  the 
r61e  of  political  leader,  and  moreover  their  Whiggish  proclivi- 
ties caused  them  actually  to  approve  the  constitutional  changes 
that  were  being  introduced.  So  it  happened  that  the  inhabitants 
of  New  York  got  their  first  lessons  in  Whig  principles  from 
leaders  to  whom  those  principles  in  themselves  were  quite  in- 
different. How  long  this  would  have  gone  on  had  Delancey 
lived,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  his  attempt  to  make  King's 
College  an  Episcopal  foundation  roused  those  who  had  re- 
mained cold  to  his  demagogism,  while  it  touched  the  Noncon- 
formists in  their  tenderest  point.  Indeed,  the  last  day  of  his 
life  was  perhaps  the  most  unhappy,  for  then,  on  a  social  occasion, 
in  the  presence  of  his  friends,  his  conduct  had  been  ridiculed 
to  his  face  by  men  whose  good  opinion  was  an  honour,  and  so 
true  were  these  gibes,  and  so  unprecedented  and  humiliating 
the  experience,  that  he  had  no  word  to  answer.  Fortunate 
always,  his  sudden  death  the  next  morning  stopped  the  unravel- 
ling of  his  reputation  at  the  start,  and  preserved  his  influence 
as  longer  life  might  have  failed  to  do. 

In  the  city  itself  Golden  found  many  changes  of  a  more  ob- 
vious sort.  Wealth  and  luxury  had  increased  to  an  astonishing 
degree.  The  provincial  gallants  and  ladies  of  fashion  could 
now  be  as  well  turned  out  in  Hanover  Square  and  Broad  Street 
as  in  London  itself;  it  was  the  fault  of  a  man's  pocket  or  his 
taste  did  he  not  set  his  table  with  delicacies  from  all  parts  of 
the  world;  house  furnishings  and  decorations  of  an  elegance 
of  which  the  earlier  inhabitants  had  never  dreamed  were  im- 
ported in  quantities;  and  people  of  a  literary  sort  were  no 
longer  obUged  to  look  to  England  and  the  Continent  for  the 


A  Colonial  Executive  265 

inspiration  of  new  books.  Prices,  too,  had  steadily  mounted. 
Provisions  and  other  necessities  cost  three  times  as  much  as 
they  had  a  very  few  years  before,  while  so  many  persons  were 
travelling  the  road  from  simplicity  to  comparative  extravagance, 
that  it  was  going  to  be  financially  disastrous  for  the  new  chief 
to  maintain  a  suitable  estabUshment  unless  he  could  reimburse 
himself  by  the  profits  of  a  long  term.  It  was  true  he  had  a 
right  to  the  house  in  the  Fort  built  for  the  royal  governors; 
but  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst,  the  general  commanding  the  British 
forces  in  America,  had  for  some  time  made  this  his  headquarters, 
and  it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  Colden  wrote  that  it  would 
be  necessary  to  take  a  certain  number  of  rooms  for  himself, 
reserving  the  best  for  the  general.  This  brought  an  offer 
from  Colonel  Delancey.*  He  announced  that  his  house  was  at 
the  general's  service,  and  Colden,  with  more  impulsiveness 
than  judgment,  said  that  he  would  take  it  instead,  leaving 
Amherst  undisturbed.  He  did  not  do  so,  however,  for  when 
Amherst  declined  Delancey's  proposition,  Delancey,  ignoring 
Colden  entirely,  told  Mrs.  Delancey  to  move  in  at  once,  an 
indication  that  the  new  chief  magistrate  had  the  old  scores  still 
against  him.  Colden,  on  his  part,  lost  no  time  in  representing 
to  the  Earl  of  Hahfax,  president  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  to 
the  Board  itself^  the  justice  and  good  policy  of  his  promotion. 
He  also  wrote  to  his  old  friend,  Collinson,  to  take  charge  of  his 
candidacy,  with  power  to  draw  on  his  son's  account,  while  he 
himself  besought  the  influence  of  John  Pownall,  secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Trade  and  brother  of  the  governor  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  He  added  that  Mr.  Charles,  the  assembly's 
London  agent,  was  proving  persona  non  grata  to  his  clients, 
and  it  would  be  his  pleasure  to  get  the  position  for  Pownall. 

1  This  was  Oliver  Delancey,  a  brother  of  the  late  chief  justice. 

2  Colden  Letter  Books,  in  Collections  of  the  New  York  His.  Soc.  for  1876, 
I,  32-36- 


266,  Cadwallader  C olden 

Pownall's  reply  was  encouraging.  He  considered  the  issue  of 
a  commission  probable,  and  said  that,  while  his  present  position 
quite  satisfied  him,  his  friend,  Mr.  Burke,  would  be  delighted 
to  supersede  Mr.  Charles,  an  ambition  that  Golden  promised 
his  best  efforts  to  further.  He  admitted,  however,  that  as 
Mr.  Burke  was  quite  unknown  in  the  colonies,  the  result  was 
doubtful. 

The  later  discovery  of  this  offer  of  Colden's  was  to  make  no 
addition  to  his  popularity ;  but  meanwhile,  for  the  first  months 
of  his  administration,  he  was  undoubtedly  enjoying  his  position. 
Old  enmities  were  apparently  forgotten,  and  he  met  cordial 
faces  and  heard  congratulations  everywhere  he  went.  The 
little  dignities  of  his  office  were  grateful  after  his  stormy  career, 
and  he  was  pleasantly  unaware  that  the  men  who  had  gathered 
around  Delancey  were  merely  stunned  for  the  moment  by  the 
unexpected  change,  and  that  the  more  moderate  were  confident 
that  they  could  bring  him,  now  an  old  man  and  naturally  de- 
sirous of  comfort,  to  meet  their  views.  In  fact,  they  hoped  for 
nothing  less  than  his  repudiation  of  the  principles  of  a  lifetime, 
and  this  to  be  shown  by  the  appointment  of  a  chief  justice 
during  good  behaviour.  Supreme  Court  justices  in  the  colonies 
were  appointed  in  various  ways.  In  New  York  the  chief 
justice  could  be  appointed  directly  by  the  king,  by  mandamus 
to  the  commander-in-chief,  or  by  the  latter  himself,  un- 
prompted. The  commander-in-chief  also  named  the  inferior 
judges,  or  puisnes,  his  instructions  directing  that  he  never 
should  appoint  save  on  the  tenure  of  the  king's  pleasure.  But 
however  appointed,  the  salaries  of  all,  both  chief  justice  and 
puisnes,  were  granted  annually  by  the  legislature,  and,  always 
insignificant,  could  be  made  still  smaller  at  their  caprice. 
Such  a  system  had  long  convinced  Colden  of  three  things :  first, 
that  no  man  of  ability  could  give  the  time  necessary  to  the  office 
of  chief  justice  for  so  small  a  compensation  unless  he  were  also 


A  Colonial  Executive  267 

a  man  of  fortune ;  second,  that  no  man  of  fortune  would  under- 
take it  unless  he  expected  to  gain  thereby  a  more  than  legitimate 
influence ;  and  third,  that  at  the  same  time  he,  like  his  colleagues, 
was  dependent  on  the  legislature.  The  ring  was  complete,  and 
no  one  could  tell  where  it  began.  Naturally,  moreover,  its 
power  would  be  increased  by  tenure  during  good  behaviour,  and 
that  man  was  sanguine  who  hoped  for  Colden's  acquiescence. 
There  was  some  reason,  however,  why  he  should  make  an 
immediate  appointment,  for  there  was  probably  sincere  alarm 
lest  otherwise  the  English  government  might  parallel  its  recent 
policy  in  New  Jersey.  There  the  treasurer  of  a  north  of  Eng- 
land turnpike  had  been  followed  on  the  bench  by  a  Newgate 
soHcitor,  the  husband  of  some  great  lady  and  recommended  by 
the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  in  order,  it  was 
said,  to  get  him  out  of  the  way,  his  wife's  lover  having  in- 
fluence with  the  great  lawyer.  "The  people  in  general  have 
received  strong  prejudices  thereby,"  Colden  wrote  the  Earl  of 
Halifax,  president  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  in  reference  to  this 
appointment;  "but  at  the  same  time  I  must  declare  I  know 
nothing  of  Mr.  Jones,  having  never  seen  him." 

With  equal  diplomacy,  William  Smith  having  first  refused  to 
accept  the  office  on  the  old  basis,  he  left  the  matter  with  the 
board,  procured  the  postponement  of  a  formal  address  to  him- 
self on  the  subject,  and  succeeded  for  the  moment  in  quieting 
the  disappointed  candidates,  among  whom  were  Judge  Cham- 
bers and  Mr.  Morris,  of  New  Jersey. 

The  first  months  of  the  new  administration,  in  fact,  were  not 
conducive  to  controversy.  In  September  came  the  news  of  the 
final  surrender  of  Canada  at  Montreal.  In  November  came 
Amherst  himself  to  the  booming  of  the  guns  of  Fort  George, 
when  the  city  was  brilliant  with  the  British  colours  by  day  and 
illuminations  by  night,  and  when  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and  com- 
monalty conferred  the  freedom  of  their  municipality  on  the  victor, 


268  Cadwallader  Colden 

in  the  usual  gold  box  and  with  an  unusually  patriotic  address. 
Finally,  before  the  winter  set  in,  the  news  of  the  death  of  George 
II  and  of  the  accession  of  George  III  lent  that  pictorial  interest 
to  political  relations  that  such  changes  inspire.  Hymns  and 
anthems  of  thanksgiving  were  published  in  the  newspapers; 
the  overthrow  of  "the  insulting  Gaul,"  the  triumph  of  British 
mercy  over  British  valour,  and  the  fatherly  care  of  the  old  king 
were  all  subjects  for  poetic  congratulation;  while  one  enthu- 
siast went  so  far  as  to  forecast  the  future  and  through  many 
verses  saw  "Europe  tremble  at  the  name  of  George."  PubUc 
opinion  was  tinged  with  the  same  mild  patriotism,  and  partly 
from  this  and  partly  from  the  caution  of  surprise,  Colden's 
first  assembly  was  comfortably  uneventful.  Still  Colden  did  his 
share  in  the  way  of  concession.  If  he  got  the  salary  he  asked, 
he  passed  without  flinching  the  currency  and  revenue  bills  in 
the  very  form  he  had  once  so  vigorously  condemned;  was  ex- 
travagant in  his  praise  of  his  predecessor ;  and,  it  was  greedily 
noted,  when  he  gave  the  formal  promise  to  concur  in  everything 
conducive  to  the  colony's  welfare,  left  out  the  customary  pro- 
viso "consistent  with  my  duty  to  his  Majesty."^  "Only  an- 
other instance  of  the  effect  of  responsibihty,"  people  wisely 
observed.  An  impartial  observer  might  have  added  that  Col- 
den was  proving  himself  by  far  the  most  able  governor  New 
York  had  possessed  in  over  thirty  years,  and,  by  virtue  of  his 
wide  knowledge  of  colonial  conditions,  the  best-equipped  of  her 
colonial  executives. 

II 

With  the  progress  of  the  new  reign  this  rosy  situation  began  to 
fade.    "At  my  age,"  Colden  had  written  to  a  fellow-governor, 

^  Journal  of  the  General  Assembly  of  N.  Y.,  II,  634-635.  He  did  say,  how- 
ever; "as  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  Powers  devolved  on  me  by  this  Casual 
Accession  to  the  Administration." 


A  Colonial  Executive  269 

unconsciously  voicing  the  thoughts  of  many,  "an  easy  is  better 
than  a  profitable  administration."  ^  But  with  unimpaired 
mental  vigor  and  physical  strength  at  least  equal  to  its  support, 
he  soon  found  that  mere  expediency  appealed  to  him  as  little 
at  seventy  as  it  had  at  thirty.  His  discovery  was  due,  in  the  first 
place,  to  the  lawyers,  a  class  of  men  whom  many  regarded  with 
a  feeHng  akin  to  Mr.  Tulliver's.  In  new  countries  where  land 
disputes  are  frequent,  ignorance  general,  and  the  rights  of  the 
government  ill-defined,  unless  complete  anarchy  prevails,  a 
lawyer  can  easily  make  himself  a  power.  This  had  been  in  an 
especial  manner  the  case  in  New  York,  where  the  lawyers,  ar- 
riving late  and  slowly,  had,  about  the  middle  of  the  century, 
formed  a  sort  of  union  that  had  greatly  decreased  Delancey's 
influence.  He  had  at  once  propitiated  and  controlled  them,  and, 
though  he  had  never  succeeded  in  making  his  interest  theirs, 
he  had  achieved  the  effect,  and  many  of  the  advantages,  of  an 
alliance.  About  the  time  of  his  death,  however,  there  had  been 
many  signs  of  revolt,  and,  whether  his  skill  would  have  been 
equal  to  their  repression  or  not,  it  was  certain  that  his  successor 
must  pay  some  court  to  the  leaders  of  the  fraternity  or  give  up 
all  thought  of  surmounting  the  difficulties  of  his  position.  Yet, 
for  more  reasons  than  one.  Golden  would  have  found  such 
diplomacy  impossible.  At  the  time,  the  acknowledged  leaders 
of  the  profession  were  three  young  men,  William  Smith  the 
younger,  John  Morin  Scott,  and  William  Livingston.  Liv- 
ingston and  Smith  had  been  together  at  Yale,  and  then  all  three 
had  gone  into  the  elder  Smith's  office  to  read  law,  while,  in  their 
leisure  hours,  they  planned  the  pohtical  revolution  of  New  York 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  was  not,  perhaps,  altogether  youth- 
fully guileless.  These  plans  soon  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
the  Whig  Club,  which,  organized  in  1752,  for  years  met  once  a 
week  at  the  King's  Arms  Tavern.     Here  the  members  drank 

1  Colden  to  Thomas  Pownall,  Letter  Books,  I,  13,  14. 


270  Cadwallader  C olden 

endless  toasts  to  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Puritan  heroes  of  all 
types,  while  they  listened  to  speeches  which  aimed  to  arouse  a 
noble  discontent  with  the  decidedly  comfortable  condition  en- 
joyed by  most  of  those  present.  Gradually,  dissatisfaction  and 
patriotism  became  interchangeable  terms,  and  the  men  who  had 
brought  this  about,  and  whose  own  development  Golden  ascribed 
to  the  pernicious  influence  of  the  New  Haven  college,  were  con- 
sidered not  only  as  having  held  up  a  mirror  to  the  situation,  but 
as  being  alone  able  to  cope  with  its  complications/ 

Such  men  were  "levellers"  indeed,  and  it  was  manifestly  out 
of  the  question  for  Golden  to  meet  them  on  any  ground  what- 
soever. Even  had  their  characters  and  motives  been  unim- 
peachable, he  could  scarcely  have  done  so.  To  him  an  Inde- 
pendent was  only  less  dangerous  to  society  than  a  papist,  an 
opinion  confirmed  by  history  as  he  read  it  and  conditions  in 
New  England  as  he  had  observed  them.  "We  have,"  he  had 
written  his  son  three  years  before,  "instances  in  History  of  King- 
doms well  governed,  under  absolute  monarchy ;  but  it  seems  to 
me,  that  it  is  impossible  that  a  people  can  be  happy,  under 
a  Government  formed  on  genuine  independent  principles  "  ; 
while  in  the  same  letter  he  propounded  two  queries :  "how  comes 
it  that  the  old  genuine  Independents  &  Enthusiasts  in  general 
have  so  little  regard  to  Veracity,"  and  "what  is  the  true  Definition 
of  a  Bigot?"  ^  With  this  opinion  of  Independents  as  a  class, 
he  had  spent  the  leisure  of  his  last  country  winter  in  preparing 
for  the  instruction  of  his  children  and  the  enUghtenment  of  pos- 
terity a  spirited  commentary  on  Smith  fils  and  his  lately  published 
history,  which,  though  at  that  time  continued  only  up  to  the 
year  1732,  afforded  him  material  for  much  indignant  criticism. 
He  also  challenged  the  author  openly,  to  prove  the  truth  of  the 
reflections  on  the  surveyor  general  contained  in  the  account  of 

^  Jones's  History,  p.  5. 

'  Collections  of  the  N.  Y.  His.  Soc.  for  1869,  209-210. 


A  Colonial  Executive  271 

an  episode  belonging  to  the  year  1737,  and  clearly  dragged  into 
the  appendix  for  some  ulterior  motive,  belying,  as  it  did,  the  not 
unflattering  characterization  of  Golden  in  the  history  itself. 
Smith  half  begging  the  question,  half  disclaiming  any  allusion 
to  Golden,  after  some  further  correspondence,  the  controversy 
was  dropped.  But  neither  forgot,  and  the  time  had  now  come 
when  its  memory  and  the  memory  of  all  it  implied  prevented 
the  amenities  that  Golden 's  own  interest  demanded  and  made 
personal  maUce  a  determining  factor  in  Smith's  choice  of  policy. 
The  situation  soon  disclosed  itself.  Everything  was  still 
going  smoothly  when,  shortly  after  the  news  of  the  king's  death 
arrived  from  England,  the  lawyers  discovered  an  unwritten  law 
declaring  the  dissolution  of  assemblies  and  the  vacation  of  cer- 
tain offices  by  the  demise  of  the  crown.  Golden  put  Httle  faith 
in  the  discovery  and  wanted  to  put  less.  But  that  made  no 
difference.  All  legal  processes  were  stopped  at  once,  an  oppres- 
sive uncertainty  invested  all  but  the  most  private  actions;  and 
Golden  himself  was  full  of  anxiety  because  he  had  learned  of  the 
probable  necessity  for  more  volunteers  before  the  spring,  and  there 
might  be  no  assembly  to  provide  them.  The  governor  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  had  promptly  proclaimed  George  III  of  his 
ovm  accord,  but  the  governor  of  New  York  was  not  allowed  any 
such  freedom  of  action ;  and  when  an  unexpectedly  late  ship 
brought  the  necessary  orders  and  the  young  king's  proclamation 
continuing  all  officers  in  their  places,  he  found  to  his  disappoint- 
ment that  this  was  not  to  be  the  solution  of  his  difficulty.  Instead, 
the  lav^ers  began  to  talk  with  learned  vagueness  of  a  subtle 
difference  between  commissions;  some,  it  seemed,  requiring 
to  be  continued  by  an  act  of  Parliament.  In  any  case.  Golden 
felt  obUged  to  yield  the  old  assembly ;  and  in  March  the  members 
of  a  new  one,  elected  in  pursuance  of  his  writs,  met  as  usual  in 
the  Gity  Hall  on  Wall  Street.  The  management  of  a  New  York 
assembly  was  never  an  easy  matter,  and  now,  though  only  seven 


272  Cadwallader  C olden 

new  men  had  been  chosen,  the  fact  that  some  of  their  prede- 
cessors had  been  leaders  of  experience  while  those  ambitious  to 
succeed  them  had  none,  made  party  aHgnment  next  to  impossible. 
Golden,  however,  secured  for  Amherst  two-thirds  of  the  number 
of  volunteers  that  had  been  raised  the  year  before,  with  their 
provisions  and  pay;  and  eighteen  other  pieces  of  more  or  less 
important  legislation  were  pushed  through  and  approved  by 
him  on  the  last  day  of  a  comparatively  short  session. 

There  remained  two  bills  to  which  he  refused  to  put  his  name. 
To  one,  designed  to  legalize  all  acts  of  government  between  the 
death  of  George  III  and  the  arrival  of  the  news  in  the  colony, 
he  objected,  first,  technically,  because  it  did  not  follow  the  in- 
structions in  several  respects,  and,  secondly,  because  he  thought 
it  illogical.  "It  seems  to  me  with  submission,"  he  wrote  the 
Board  of  Trade,^  "an  absolute  absurdity  to  say  that  a  man  can 
be  restrained  in  his  Lawfull  acts  by  any  matter  or  thing  of  which 
it  is  impossible  for  him  to  have  any  knowledge.  It  is  establish- 
ing a  kind  of  Law  Popery  ...  &  By  setting  Law  &  Gommon 
sense  in  opposition  Lawyers  may  obtain  a  most  extensive  power 
over  the  Minds  of  the  rest  of  mankind."  By  the  second  bill 
the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Gourt  were  to  be  appointed  there- 
after on  the  tenure  of  good  behaviour,  all  other  conditions  re- 
maining the  same.  The  fact  that  they  were  subject  to  removal 
by  the  commander-in-chief  on  an  address  by  the  assembly  or 
the  signed  advice  of  seven  councillors  did  not  mean  anything 
under  the  circumstances,  and  Golden  realized  that,  cost  him 
what  it  might,  he  could  never  be  so  inconsistent  with  his  past  as 
to  approve  such  a  measure.  So,  while  it  was  still  in  its 
earlier  stages,  taking  for  granted  that  its  purpose  was  to 
render  arbitrary  removals  impossible,  he  privately  assured  the 
speaker  and  other  prominent  members  that  he  would  sign  a 
bill  providing  that  no  judge  should  be  removed  by  a  governor 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  88-90. 


A  Colonial  Executive  273 

save  on  the  request  of  the  king,  the  assembly,  or  at  least  seven 
councillors.  Later,  he  even  said  that  he  would  approve  this 
bill  as  it  stood,  if  the  salaries  for  the  judges  were  fixed  per- 
manently and  to  be  paid  out  of  a  reUable  fund.  But  when  some 
members  got  the  idea  that  he  would  sign  if  the  salaries  were  made 
larger,  one  of  his  friends  told  the  debaters  that  higher  salaries 
would  make  no  difference.  It  was  steadiness  of  income  that 
Golden  wanted  first,  and  though  his  council  showed  every  indica- 
tion of  advising  him  to  sign  if  he  would  but  give  them  the 
chance,  the  bill  was  lost. 

Up  to  this  time,  significantly  enough,  the  judges  themselves 
had  agreed  with  Golden  that  is  was  unnecessary  to  renew  their 
commissions,  which  had  no  concern  with  the  king's  will  or 
pleasure,  just  because  George  II  was  dead.  Naturally,  they 
preferred  these  to  renewals  by  Golden,  of  whose  tenure  they  were 
at  first  doubtful  and  then  unpleasantly  certain.  But  the  bar 
talked  so  solemnly  of  the  consequences  of  the  exercise  of  judi- 
cial functions  by  those  who  were  no  longer  judges  that,  as  the 
spring  term  drew  near,  the  bench  to  a  man  grew  nervous  and 
begged  new  commissions  identical  with  the  old.  "  Sit  upon  your 
old  commissions  and  the  royal  proclamation  dated  at  Saville 
House,"  replied  Golden.  ''That  may  not  have  been  under  the 
great  seal,"  they  retorted  according  to  instructions.  "Yours 
are  as  good  as  mine,  and  you'll  stand  on  the  same  foundation," 
said  Golden  to  the  great  delight  of  his  tormentors,  who  now  de- 
clared that  fear  for  himself  had  been  the  motive  of  his  opposition.* 

The  spring  courts  were  nevertheless  held  without  further  in- 
cident, and  at  the  same  time  a  severe  illness  nearly  put  an  end 
to  Golden 's  career.  But  he  weathered  it  sturdily,  and,  as  if  in 
congratulation,  during  his  convalescence  the  long-desired  com- 
mission as  heutenant-governor  arrived.  Yet  now  that  it  was  at 
last  his,  the  triumph  of  his  success  was  diminished  by  the  refusal 

1  Smith's  "  History  of  New  York,"  II,  354. 


274  Cadwallader  C olden 

of  his  request  that  his  son,  who  had  for  some  time  shared  with 
him  the  office  of  surveyor  general,  be  made  a  councillor;  by 
the  knowledge  that  one  of  the  generals  concerned  in  the  winning 
of  Canada  had  been  selected  as  governor  of  New  York ;  and  by 
the  fact  that  his  new  office  brought  with  it  no  salary  except  when 
there  was  no  governor-in-chief.  He  suggested  that  Collinson 
remind  Lord  Halifax  that  it  might  be  a  bad  thing  for  the  gov- 
ernment to  put  young  Watts  on  the  council  board.  His  father, 
who  had  married  a  sister  of  the  late  chief  justice,  had  been  there 
some  time ;  his  uncle  Oliver  had  just  received  his  appointment 
after  a  long  struggle,  and  the  elevation  of  a  third  member  of  the 
family  would  do  much  to  restore  the  Delancey  self-confidence. 
It  would  be  considered  noteworthy  that  the  acting  governor's 
candidate  had  been  refused  in  favour  of  one  of  a  family  long  a 
stumbhng-block  in  the  way  of  the  loyal  servants  of  the  crown. 
This  and  the  expectation  of  a  governor  would,  he  feared,  take 
away  his  influence.^ 

Clearly,  Colden  felt  a  growing  disaffection  among  the  people, 
and  though  some  of  the  reasons  for  this  must  have  been  clear 
to  him  there  were  others  that  he  was  unable  to  perceive.  He 
did  reaUze  that  his  refusal  to  pass  the  bill  relating  to  the  com- 
missions of  the  judges,  for  instance,  had  made  him  enemies ;  but 
he  did  not  see  how  exasperating  it  was  that  he  should  be  more 
solicitous  concerning  colonial  dependence  than  the  Enghsh 
government  itself.  Clinton  had  broken  the  thirty-ninth  instruc- 
tion when  he  gave  Delancey  his  commission,  and  if  his  action 
had  been  considered  bad  pohcy  it  had  never  been  called  anything 
worse.  Indeed,  when  he  later  appointed  John  Chambers  judge 
on  the  like  tenure,  his  apology  for  doing  so  was  promptly  ac- 
knowledged as  satisfactory.  This  justified  his  appointment  of 
the  penitent  Horsmanden  on  good  behaviour  also,  and  when, 
in  the  Delancey  administration,  it  was  decided  to  have  a  fourth 

1  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  56. 


A  Colonial  Executive  275 

justice,  David  Jones  was  appointed  on  the  same  tenure  as  his 
fellow- judges  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  was  therefore  considered 
positively  impertinent,  excellent  as  his  reasons  were,  for  Colden 
to  ignore  the  new  precedent  and  to  insist  on  writing  home  for 
further  directions,  probably  insinuating  ideas  into  the  minds  of 
his  correspondents  to  which  otherwise  they  might  never  have 
given  a  thought. 

Nor  was  this  his  only  offence.  An  expert  on  the  land  system, 
he  had  for  forty  years  tried  to  impress  his  characteristic  theories 
on  the  administration  of  the  government  lands  with  indifferent 
success.  Yet  not  disheartened,  he  had  used  his  new  position 
to  make  a  still  greater  effort  to  correct  abuses,  and  had  filled 
sheets  with  details  and  suggestions,  in  his  instances  caring  not 
at  whom  he  struck.  Again,  he  had  conscientiously  fulfilled  his 
duty  of  seeing  strict  obedience  paid  to  the  laws  of  trade.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  he  himself  thought  Great  Britain  was 
making  a  mistake,  and  that  to  deny  the  EngUsh  colonies  the 
freest  commercial  intercourse  with  the  island  colonies  of  France 
and  Spain  was  to  her  own  disadvantage,  forbidding,  as  it  did, 
any  great  extension  of  her  trade  with  her  American  subjects.^ 
The  British  continental  colonies  had  once  been  able  to  buy  all 
they  wanted  in  the  markets  of  Great  Britain,  because  the  French 
and  Spanish  West  Indies  had  wanted  more  of  their  products 
than  there  was  sugar  to  pay  for.  But  since  this  supply  of  specie 
had  been  stopped  by  the  restriction  of  the  sugar  trade,  the  dis- 
satisfaction of  law-abiding  merchants  and  smuggling  on  the  part 
of  the  rest  had  been  frequently  cited  as  proofs  of  the  harmful 
effects  of  the  law.  Colden,  who  went  so  far  as  to  intimate  this 
to  the  Board  of  Trade,  determined  none  the  less,  on  a  principle 
still  recognized  as  sound,  to  enforce  the  law  as  it  stood,  whatever 
he  might  think  of  it ;  and  his  reports  of  the  ways  of  the  smuggler 
soon  became  as  circumstantial  as  his  essays  on  the  land  jobber. 

1  Colden  to  Secretary  Pitt,  Letter  Books,  I,  26-28. 


276  Cadwallader  C olden 

Thus,  before  he  had  been  a  year  in  office,  Golden  had  dis- 
closed his  intention  of  doing  his  utmost  to  subvert  the  schemes 
of  the  three  most  influential  classes  of  men  in  the  community; 
and  while  to  his  contemporaries  his  reforms  seemed  irritatingly 
gratuitous,  and  perhaps  no  American  can  wish  they  had  been 
successful,  his  courage  and  energy  in  grasping  his  opportunity, 
alone  and  unsupported  by  public  opinion,  is  none  the  less  ad- 
mirable. Not  that  he  was  the  only  man  in  the  colony  who  was 
loyal  to  Old  England.  There  were  many  others,  as  time  was 
to  prove,  and  these  also  saw  much  to  be  desired  in  the  attitude 
of  their  fellow- citizens  to  the  country  to  which,  after  all,  their 
debt  was  great.  But  they  hoped  for  the  gradual  development 
of  a  sense  of  kinship  through  the  influence  of  governors  of  tact 
and  ability,  the  modification  of  trade  restrictions,  the  promotion 
of  education  and  of  mutual  knowledge  and  intercourse,  and  they 
bent  all  their  efforts  to  further  these  ends.  On  the  other  hand, 
Golden,  even  as  a  young  man,  had  been  unable  to  see  that  Eng- 
land's shght  hold  on  those  about  him  was  only  natural ;  that  it 
was  impossible  for  a  people  of  little  education  and  with  as  much 
Dutch  and  French,  as  EngHsh,  blood  in  their  veins  to  feel  any 
sentimental  attachment  for  her  traditions  and  laws. 

This  was  unfortunate,  as  his  long  agitation  for  drastic  meas- 
ures served  to  increase  the  feeUng  of  separation  he  deplored  and 
to  confirm  his  own  prejudices  beyond  the  hope  of  correction, 
while  its  effect  had  been  equally  dubious  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water.  With  a  short-sighted  indifference  that  was  almost 
criminal,  the  EngUsh  colonial  boards  had  gone  on  making 
appointments  with  regard  neither  for  attainments  nor  character, 
and  when  the  inefficient  objects  of  their  choice  appealed  for  the 
support  they  had  a  right  to  expect,  had  ignored  them  and  seen 
them  insulted  with  apparent  placidity.  Golden 's  portents  and 
the  complaints  of  disappointed  governors  were  considered  a 
nuisance,  while  Delancey,  "leveller"  that  he  was,  was  pre- 


A  Colonial  Executive  277 

ferred  because  he  was  at  least  never  tiresome.  Yet  there  was 
never  any  willingness  to  modify  the  regulations  made  for  Eng- 
land's fancied  benefit,  which  Colden  so  everlastingly  insisted 
should  be  observed  and  which  the  opposition  so  light-heartedly 
disregarded.  Indeed,  an  occasional  fit  of  responsibiUty  would 
induce  the  enactment  of  even  severer  laws,  but  the  lack  of  method 
in  their  enforcement  was  just  as  conspicuous.  What  wonder 
that  the  people  of  New  York  lost  respect  for  such  a  loosely  con- 
structed government  and  became  so  unaccustomed  to  obedience 
that  they  resented  even  a  rightful  curb?  What  wonder  that 
their  representatives  regarded  a  governor's  opposition  as  an 
annoying  cause  of  delay  in  a  favourite  measure,  and  nothing 
more,  when  in  reaUty  it  was  they  who  held  the  purse-strings  and 
could  force  him  to  comply  or  lose  what  he  was  there  for? 

Accordingly,  even  the  brief  emergency  session  called  in  Sep- 
tember, 1 761,  to  provide  defenders  for  the  counties  of  Orange 
and  Ulster,  was  made  use  of  by  both  council  and  assembly  to  pass 
again  the  two  rejected  bills,  the  alterations  being  too  slight  for 
remark.  And  again  Colden  refused  his  signature.  He  quailed, 
however,  at  the  prospect  of  a  third  encounter,  and  confided  to 
his  council  that  he  had  written  home  for  directions.  His  requi- 
sition, he  said,  to  be  sure,  had  been  "readily  and  fully"  complied 
with,^  but  there  had  been  an  indication  of  the  feehng  toward 
him  personally  when  the  assembly  snappishly  refused  its  consent 
to  the  erection  of  a  theatre  by  a  company  under  the  governor's 
patronage.  The  coming  session  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which 
was  to  be  held  the  last  week  in  October,  was  also  sure  to  make 
more  trouble.  So  it  was  with  distinct  relief  that,  alarmed  by 
the  rumour  that  the  judges  would  consent  to  act  only  on  condition 
of  his  compHance  with  their  wishes,  he  heard  from  a  Boston  law- 
yer, Mr.  Benjamin  Prat,  first,  that  he  had  been  asked  to  be 
chief  justice  of  New  York,  and  later  that  he  had  accepted  the 

1  To  Pitt,  Letter  Books,  I,  ii6. 


278  Cadwallader  Colden 

ofiFer.  Granting  him  character  and  abihty,  this  was  just  what 
Colden  had  wished,  for  Mr.  Prat  knew  not  a  soul  in  the 
province.  Unfortunately,  his  coming  was  delayed,  and  just 
before  the  day  appointed  for  the  opening  of  the  court  Colden 
announced  in  council  that,  unless  the  judges  would  accept  new 
commissions  on  the  tenure  of  the  king's  will,  he  would  replace 
them  at  once.  To  the  general  amazement  Horsmanden  and 
Chambers  yielded.  Jones,  however,  who  had  been  down  on 
Long  Island  contesting  an  assembly  election,  and  was  on  his  way 
to  town  when  he  heard  the  news,  promptly  turned  back,  swear- 
ing that  no  power  should  ever  induce  him  to  consider  the  ac- 
ceptance of  a  judgeship  "on  so  base  and  precarious  tenure,"  a 
decision  which  one  of  his  fellows  at  least  envied  with  all  his 
heart.  For,  no  sooner  were  the  new  commissions  in  hand  than 
it  was  whispered  that  they  were  worthless,  as  Colden 's  power 
to  give  them,  derived  from  Governor  Hardy's  commission, 
must  have  lapsed  six  months  after  the  king's  death.  Judge 
Chambers,  quite  unnerved,  could  only  beg  the  attorney  general 
to  bring  no  criminal  causes  before  the  court. 

Before  this,  however,  on  the  19th  of  October,  the  Alcide,  ship 
of  war,  had  brought  the  new  governor's  commission.  Robert 
Monckton,  Viscount  Galway's  second  son,  had  entered  the  army 
when  a  boy,  had  been  in  active  service  ever  since  in  many  parts 
of  the  world,  had  stood  by  Wolfe  at  Quebec,  and  now  was  major 
general  and  governor  of  the  province  of  New  York  at  thirty- 
five.  As  has  been  said,  his  appointment  had  preceded  his 
commission  by  several  months,  and  he  had  spent  the  interval  in 
garrison  quarters  on  Staten  Island,  often  coming  up  to  town 
in  informal  fashion,  where  he  had  made  many  friends  and  at- 
tracted much  attention,  and  where  his  investiture  with  the  Order 
of  the  Bath  by  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst  had  been  an  occasion  of 
great  brilliancy  and  interest.  There  was  in  consequence  every 
prospect  of  an  unusually  happy  administration,  and  it  was  disas- 


A  Colonial  Executive  279 

trous  that  Colden's  aversion  to  even  a  mild  opportunism  pre- 
vented his  reaping  from  this  fortunate  circumstance  any  advan- 
tage either  for  himself  or  the  government  he  idealized.  Instead, 
his  relations  with  Monckton  were  exactly  what  one  might  have 
expected  them  to  be  under  the  circumstances.  It  was  the  cus- 
tom for  the  governor-elect  to  produce  his  commission  in  council 
and  then  follow  it  with  his  instructions,  which  were  headed  by 
a  list  of  the  men  qualified  to  swear  him  into  office  and  so  referred 
to  in  the  commission.  But  on  the  day  which  Monckton  him- 
self had  named  for  his  inauguration,  there  was  a  failure  of  the 
usual  sequence,  and  Colden  promptly  asked  the  reason.  The 
reason  was  that  no  instructions  had  arrived,  a  fact  that  Colden 
afterward  solemnly  declared  he  had  been  unaware  of  until  that 
moment,  further  asserting  that  even  in  his  surprise  he  had  said 
nothing  to  which  exception  could  be  taken.  Smith,  however, 
flatly  contradicted  this  statement  and  told  Monckton  that  Col- 
den had  known  all  beforehand  and  had  planned  to  prevent  his 
taking  the  oaths.  But  to  Smith's  delight  not  a  man  joined  the 
retiring  president  in  questioning  the  legality  of  the  proceedings, 
and  the  oaths  were  administered  without  delay. 

Now,  whether  he  knew  of  the  missing  document  before  the 
council  meeting  or  not,  Colden  was  certainly  in  the  right.  The 
instructions  were  an  important  part  of  the  colony's  constitution, 
a  governor's  chief  guide,  and  there  was  no  reason  why  Monck- 
ton should  not  have  waited  for  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
Colden  had  little  natural  tact  and  his  manner  may  very  well 
have  been  irritating.  Even  had  it  been  otherwise,  however, 
the  result  would  probably  have  differed  Httle.  Monckton  was 
young,  he  was  socially  approachable,  he  had  no  uncomfortable 
schemes  for  putting  things  to  rights,  and  he  knew  so  little  about 
colonial  administration  that  he  was  not  above  taking  the  advice 
of  as  many  as  felt  in  a  position  to  give  it.  Therefore  he  was 
received  with  enthusiasm;   he  was  dined  by  the  "Gentlemen 


28o  Cadwallader  Colden 

of  the  Bench,"  by  the  corporation  of  the  city,  and  by  the 
"Gentlemen  of  the  Bar,"  to  whom,  with  much  astuteness,  he 
had  already  given  a  "most  elegant  entertainment";  addresses 
full  of  self-congratulation  on  the  advent  of  a  governor  of  birth 
and  position,  and  without  a  word  of  his  predecessor,  were  eagerly 
tendered.  Then,  not  having  once  spoken  to  Colden  in  private, 
but  having  publicly  intimated  his  disapproval  of  his  course  in 
regard  to  the  judges'  commissions,  he  sailed  away  from  a 
throng  of  well-wishers  for  the  conquest  of  Martinique  after 
an  administration  of  nineteen  days. 

This  was  hard  to  bear.  Colden  had  made  an  excellent  gov- 
ernor and  his  bitterest  foe  had  accused  him  of  no  worse  crime 
up  to  this  point  than  his  determination  to  execute  the  laws  as 
he  had  found  them.  His  conduct  had  been  dignified,  and  it  had 
been  impossible  to  note  any  of  the  small  rigidity  of  the  days  when 
he  had  advised  Clinton.  But  the  ascendancy  of  the  Delanceys 
was  now  fully  merged  in  the  ascendancy  of  the  lawyers,  and  the 
lawyers  had  determined  that  Colden  must  fall.  They  could 
congratulate  themselves  on  their  success.  Smith  had  been 
in  the  closest  touch  vdth  Monckton,  and  so  well  had  he  used 
his  opportunity  that  not  only  had  Colden  been  ignored,  but 
Monckton  gladdened  Smith's  heart  by  announcing  that  he  had 
altered  a  generous  plan  which  he  had  formed  in  regard  to  the 
rewards  of  government.  According  to  the  usual  instructions, 
during  the  absence  of  a  governor  his  representative  received 
half  of  his  salary  and  oj  the  perquisites  and  emoluments  of 
his  office.  The  second  "of,"  however,  had  been  merely  inter- 
polated by  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  for 
what  reason  probably  none  living  knew.  But  there  was  no 
doubt  of  the  fact,  for  the  clerk  himself  had  told  Governor  Bur- 
net and  Burnet  had  told  Colden,  who  now  proposed  to  use  his 
knowledge  to  some  advantage.  It  seemed  that  Monckton, 
without,  of  course,  knowing  anything  of  the  original  instruc- 


A  Colonial  Executive  281 

tion,  had  determined,  in  effect,  to  carry  out  its  provisions 
and  resign  all  but  half  of  his  salary  during  his  absence.  In- 
stead, he  wrote  asking  Colden  what  he  proposed  doing  about 
the  profits  of  government  while  acting  governor.  Colden 
replied  that  he  would  dispose  of  them  as  the  king  might  direct 
in  Monckton's  instructions.  Monckton  considered  this  answer 
unsatisfactory,  and  wrote  to  say  that  he  would  not  leave  until 
he  had  a  better.  Colden  replied  again  that  instructions  dif- 
fered, and  that  he  could  not  presume  to  make  any  proposition 
himself ;  but  he  did  beg  the  governor  to  remember  that  he  had 
only  just  met  expenses  when  the  total  receipts  of  the  governor's 
office  were  his.  Later  on  the  same  day  in  the  council  he  re- 
peated that  he  could  say  nothing  about  the  matter  until  he  saw 
the  instructions,  exasperating  Monckton  to  such  a  degree  that 
the  meeting  was  dismissed  in  a  hurry. 

Somewhat  alarmed,  Colden  then  went  to  Mr.  Watts,  a  mem- 
ber of  council  and  Oliver  Delancey's  brother-in-law,  to  ask 
his  assistance  as  the  only  person  whom  he  knew  who  was  also 
intimate  with  the  governor.  Watts  promised  to  do  what  he 
could,  and  together  they  composed  an  agreement  by  which  half 
the  profits  of  government  were  to  be  paid  to  Colden  and  half  to 
the  deputy-secretary  in  trust  for  Monckton.  This  Colden  sent 
to  the  governor,  but  in  place  of  an  answer  he  received  what 
Smith  called  a  "tripartite  indenture."  By  the  terms  of  this 
document  Colden  while  in  charge  of  the  administration  was 
not  to  receive  a  penny  of  the  profits  under  the  penalty  of 
;^iooo.  Everything  was  to  be  paid  to  the  deputy-secretary 
until  Monckton's  return,  when,  if  instructions  of  the  same  import 
as  Hardy's  had  meanwhile  arrived,  the  receipts  were  to  be 
divided  between  governor  and  lieutenant-governor.  But  if 
the  instructions  were  found  to  be  different,  Monckton  was  to 
have  all.  The  truth  was.  Smith  had  very  smartly  surmised  that 
Colden  would  attempt  to  secure  a  more  regular  compensation 


282  Cadwallader  Colden 

for  his  office  and  had  determined  to  circumvent  him  by  the 
second  proviso.  Colden  in  his  reply,  conveyed  through  Mr. 
Watts,  ignored  this  and  based  his  refusal  on  the  insult  to  his 
character  and  dignity  involved  in  the  details  of  the  agree- 
ment. 

Smith  next  drew  a  bond  by  v^hich  again,  if  Monckton's 
instructions  resembled  Hardy's,  the  income  accruing  to  the 
governor's  office  was  to  be  paid  to  Colden,  but  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  render  Monckton  a  strict  account  of  his  re- 
ceipts. Indeed,  he  was  to  account  on  oath,  if  required,  and 
blanks  were  left  for  the  amount  of  security  and  penalty.  Be- 
fore this  was  sent,  even  Monckton  asked  why  it  was  necessary 
to  require  an  oath.  He  was  told  that,  as  he  himself  would  be 
chancellor,  he  could  not  make  use  of  the  Chancery  Court,  as 
could  every  other  subject,  in  order  to  get  his  rights.  But  when 
Watts  saw  the  agreement,  he  insisted  that  before  its  submission 
to  Colden  the  words  "on  oath"  should  be  eliminated.  He  added 
that  it  was  so  unnecessary  to  ask  security  that  he  himself 
at  any  time  would  let  the  lieutenant-governor  have  twice 
£2000  on  his  single  bond.  Smith,  however,  considered  this 
another  refusal  from  Colden,  and  when  Deputy-Secretary 
Banyer  returned  the  papers,  he  was  so  disgusted  and  enraged 
that  Mr.  Watts  but  just  kept  him  from  throwing  everything  into 
the  fire.  Instead,  he  found  a  new  way  of  irritating  his  victim 
and  ordered  Banyer  to  demand  a  full  hst  of  the  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor's commissions  and  land  grants  since  Delancey's  death. 
Banyer  said  he  was  sure  Colden  would  sign  if  the  desired  altera- 
tions were  made,  and  asked  if  he  should  get  the  list  anyway. 
Smith  rephed:  "You  will  obey  your  orders  and  bring  back  the 
draught  of  the  bond,  that  I  may  compare  it  with  the  copy,  that 
it  may  be  executed."  Whatever  Banyer  understood  this  am- 
biguous direction  to  mean,  Colden  did  sign.  He  wanted  to  as 
little  as  ever,  but  common  sense  argued  that  a  half  was  better 


A  Colonial  Executive  283 

than  none,  and  he  feared  that  Monckton  had  determined  on  his 
suspension  in  case  of  his  continued  refusal,  a  fear  only  too  well 
justified  by  the  facts. 

Thus  Monckton  went  away  satisfied*  and  Colden  could  only 
reheve  himself  by  an  occasional  description  of  Smith  as  he  and 
others  saw  him,  — "  a  crafty,  maUcious  smoothed-tongued  hypo- 
crite " ;  ^  and  by  making  that  plea  for  the  remuneration  of  the 
lieutenant-governor  which  Smith  had  foreseen.  In  writing  to 
Pitt  and  the  Board  of  Trade  he  did  not  forget  to  state  that  he  had 
no  salary  at  all  except  when  the  governor  was  away,  but  he  only 
asked  for  the  erasure  of  that  interpolated  of.  Tins  would,  in 
a  governor's  absence,  divide  the  salary  and  give  all  perquisites 
to  the  acting  executive,  who  had  done  the  work  and  so  was  en- 
titled to  the  fee.  He  also  offered  for  consideration  the  fact  that 
the  purchasing  power  of  the  colony  currency  had  been  declining 
ever  since  the  establishment  of  the  fees  to  be  asked  for  the  gov- 
ernor's services.  Yet  the  fees  and  other  perquisites  had  not  been 
changed.  He  appealed  to  Hardy  if  it  would  have  been  possible 
to  hve  on  half  of  his  income.  Yet  the  necessaries  of  hfe  cost  three 
times  as  much  as  they  did  in  his  day.  On  these  simple  state- 
ments he  rested  his  case.^ 

On  the  24th  of  November,  1 761 ,  the  assembly  had  met.  Once 
more  Colden  was  to  fight  a  legislative  duel,  this  time,  thanks  to 
Monckton,  against  greater  odds  than  ever  before.  His  opening 
plea  for  equal,  immediate,  and  free  justice,  with  its  characteristic 
fling  at  both  bench  and  bar,  was  answered  merely  by  generali- 
ties. The  assembly  longed  to  bring  him  to  book  by  demanding 
his  proofs ;  but  this  tempting  inquiry  was  abandoned,  says  one 
in  their  confidence,  because  it  was  thought  undignified.     They 

'  On  his  return  he  apologized  to  Colden,  returned  the  bond  and  took  his  word 
for  his  accounts. 

'  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  137- 

'  Ibid,  128,  129,  132-141.     Smith's  History,  II,  360-364. 


284  Cadwallader  Colden 

managed  to  say,  nevertheless,  that  it  was  not  more  universal 
justice  but  a  proper  regulation  of  the  cost  of  all  governmental 
services  that  was  needed.     Special  attention  was  called  to  the 
large  fees  for  land  grants  demanded  and  obtained  since  Delan- 
cey's  death  by  the  Coldens,  by  the  father  as  governor  and  the 
son  as  surveyor  general.     But  Colden  refused  to  be  drawn  into 
a  defence  of  his  honesty  just  then,  and  after  an  evasive  reply 
and  a  plea  for  a  larger  salary  for  the  chief  justice,  the  work  of 
the  session  began. ^    Again  the  two  bills  which  Colden  had  twice 
rejected  were  made  ready,  and  while  the  council  debated  them 
as  sent  up  from  the  assembly,  the  assembly  considered  the  annual 
civil  list.     This  salary  bill  as  finally  framed  granted  the  usual 
salaries  to  the  judges  only  on  condition  of  their  acceptance  of 
commissions  during  good  behaviour;    and  according  to  Smith 
it    was    supposed    that    Colden   would    reject    it,    though    it 
granted  him  ;i^220o.     Yet  at   the  same  time  he  says  that  it 
was    feared    that   Colden  would   pass   the   bill  that   formally 
altered   the  tenure    of   the   judge's    commissions,  commission 
Prat,  who  had  arrived  in  town,  accordingly,  and  leave  the  other 
judges  as  they  were.     But  why  any  one  should  have  thought 
that  he  would  pass  a  bill  against  his  avowed  principles  and  then 
reject  another  which  alone  would  have  secured  him  any  advan- 
tage from  the  first.  Smith  does  not  explain.     However  that  might 
be,  the  council,  Colden  says  at  his  suggestion,  called  a  joint  con- 
ference and  proposed  that  the  bill  relating  to  the  commissions  be 
amended  to  provide  fixed  salaries  for  the  judges  to  be  appointed 
under  the  new  tenure.      The  assembly  refused  to  consent  to  this, 
and  then  Colden  visited  the  council  and  "  meanly  "  implored 
their  assent  to  the  salary  bill.^    This  assent  they  gave,  though 
not  until  he  had  consented  to  the  entry  of  his  request  on  the 
minutes ;  whereupon  the  assembly  begged  the  council  to  drop 

*  Journal  of  the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y.,  II,  669,  672-673. 

*  Smith's  History,  II,  368. 


A  Colonial  Executive  285 

the  bill  relating  to  the  commissions.  Their  request  was  granted, 
while  the  third  bill,  legaUzing  the  acts  of  the  legislature  between 
the  death  of  George  II  and  its  announcement  in  America,  was 
also  lost  and  never  heard  of  again. 

The  consideration  of  one  important  bill  remained,  —  a  bill 
authorizing  the  partition  of  land  grants  and  in  its  provisions 
somewhat  similar  to  the  one  Golden  had  successfully  opposed 
forty  years  before.  Golden  had  always  fought  for  accuracy 
in  the  land  office,  and,  if  strict  accuracy  had  been  insisted  on, 
the  large  grants  whose  partition  was  desired  would  have  been 
quashed  on  the  score  of  many  irregularities  in  their  purchase. 
Golden  realized,  however,  that  while  many  of  these  had  been 
purchased  and  extended  by  intentional  fraud,  others  equally 
illegal  in  form  had  been  bought  in  good  faith  by  their  present 
owners.  Hence,  as  it  was  clearly  impossible  to  maintain  mathe- 
matical exactness  in  the  system  with  any  degree  of  equity,  he 
told  Smith  phre  that  he  would  sign  the  bill  provided  certain 
amendments  were  made.  Smith  agreed  to  this  condition,  and 
what  was  practically  a  new  bill  was  prepared  embodying  Gol- 
den's  suggestions.  In  this  way  he  secured  the  survey  of  the 
tracts  by  the  government  surveyor,  and  though  the  result  was 
not  made  binding  on  any  one,  it  would  at  least  give  the  adminis- 
tration certain  definite  information  for  future  use.  Still,  ever 
cautious.  Golden  sent  the  bill  to  the  ministry  as  soon  as  it  was 
signed,  commenting  on  it  fully,  and  pointing  out  that  he  thus 
gave  plenty  of  time  for  the  arrival  of  its  disallowance  before  it 
went  into  effect.* 

With  this  the  session  closed  and  Golden  betook  himself  to  the 
congenial  task  of  impressing  the  new  Secretary  of  State,  Lord 
Egremont,  and  his  other  official  correspondents,  with  the  danger 
of  allowing  the  assembly  to  force  a  governor  to  appoint  a  chief 
justice  as  they  wished.     With  Prat  unsalaried  and   forced  to 

1  Colden  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  Letter  Books,  I,  155-158. 


286  Cadwallader  C olden 

return  to  Boston;  with  the  other  judges  refusing  to  act;  with 
Monckton  rebuking  him  in  public  for  his  firmness;  with  the 
new  governor  of  the  Jerseys  complying  as  he  had  refused  to 
comply,  it  was  possible,  he  hinted,  that  even  he  might  yield. 
As  the  only  remedy  for  the  situation  he  begged  a  salary  for  Prat 
out  of  the  quit-rents.  But  as  he  was  writing  there  came  another 
instruction  to  be  added  to  those  lately  arrived  for  Monckton, 
and  forbidding  him  on  pain  of  removal  to  appoint  a  judge  save 
on  the  tenure  of  the  king's  will.  The  Board  of  Trade,  moved 
by  Colden's  letters,  had  made  a  representation  to  the  king  with 
this  result.  Unfortunately,  this  real  triumph  was  marred  by 
other  things  which  they  had  said  about  the  rapacity  of  the  land 
office,  in  the  elaborate  refutation  of  which  Golden  was  straight- 
way absorbed. 

It  was  this  moment  that  fate  pitched  on  as  proper  to  finish 
Colden's  negotiations  with  Pownall,  the  candidacy  of  whose 
friend,  Mr.  Burke,  for  the  London  agency  of  the  New  York 
assembly,  he  had  so  glibly  promised  to  manage.  At  first  con- 
fident of  success,  when  his  own  commission  arrived,  in  writing 
to  thank  Pownall  for  his  share  in  that  favour,  he  said  that  Mr. 
Burke's  chances  were  less  fair  than  they  had  been,  as  there  was 
a  disposition  to  retain  Mr.  Charles  through  pity  for  his  lack  of 
other  resources.  PowTiall,  nothing  if  not  direct,  at  once  com- 
municated his  correspondence  with  Colden  to  Charles  himself. 
He  was,  he  assured  him,  innocent  of  any  intention  to  injure  him, 
as  well  as  convinced  of  his  perfect  fitness  for  the  position  he 
occupied.  Mr.  Charles,  with  equal  promptness,  despatched 
his  information  to  the  assembly's  Committee  of  Correspondence.^ 
Here  it  gave  real  satisfaction.  The  Heutenant-governor's  com- 
mission, conveying,  as  it  apparently  did,  the  ministry's  approval 
of  Colden,  had  rankled.     To  be  able  to  trace  it  to  his  own 

*  Smith's  History,  II,  370-371  and  389-390;  Letter  Books,  I,  38,  82,  84, 
107. 


A  Colonial  Executive  287 

machinations  was  a  joy.  Colden,  it  was  now  remembered,  had 
proposed  that  the  assembly  join  him  in  appointing  a  new  agent ; 
but  he  had  said  nothing  of  a  candidate,  and  his  proposition  had 
been  laughed  at  and  treated  with  the  contempt  it  merited.  No 
governor  could  recommend  or  nominate  an  agent  for  them. 
It  seems,  indeed,  that,  as  they  said,  Colden  must  have  known 
this;  but  their  satisfaction  in  ascribing  his  commission  to  his 
"low  craft  and  condescension"  was  ill-timed.  For  many  years 
he  had  approached  the  object  of  his  desire  by  the  most  unim- 
peachable methods  without  success,  and  if  observation  and  ex- 
perience had  at  length  convinced  him  that  these  were  useless, 
the  event  certainly  proved  him  to  be  right.  If  his  offer  to  get  a 
small  place  for  the  friend  of  a  subordinate  English  official  had 
procured  him,  in  less  than  a  twelvemonth,  that  to  which  he  had 
so  long  proved  himself  entitled  in  equity,  at  least  part  of  the 
blame  for  his  offence  must  rest  on  others.  But  no  one  wanted 
to  make  his  excuses,  and  his  unpopularity  became  greater  than 
ever,  so  great  that  Chief  Justice  Prat,  whose  learning  and  up- 
rightness no  one  seems  to  have  disputed,  was  subjected  to  a  petty 
persecution  solely  because  he  was  his  friend. 

Prat  had  been  the  only  judge  who  had  acted  in  the  January 
term ;  yet,  when  the  assembly  met  in  March,  it  showed  no  dis- 
position to  give  him  a  salary  and,  being  a  comparatively  poor 
man,  he  felt  that  he  was  no  longer  justified  in  giving  up  an  ex- 
cellent practice  without  compensation.  He  proposed,  first, 
however,  to  give  the  assembly  fair  warning,  and  though  he 
delayed  in  deference  to  Colden,  who  was  filled  with  dismay  at 
the  mere  suggestion  of  his  departure,  he  finally  sent  the  following 
letter  to  the  speaker :  — 

"New  York  March  15/1762. 

"Sir, 
"I  presume  it  is  well  known  to  you  and  every  member  of  the 
Assembly  that  all  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  except 


288  Cadwallader  Colden 

myself  have  either  resigned  their  Commissions  or  refused  to 
officiate. 

"That  in  reality  there  are  no  Salaries  granted  to  the  Judges  of 
that  Court,  consequently  that  the  people  of  this  Colony  can 
have  no  reasonable  Expectation  that  any  Gentleman  not  insti- 
gated by  sinister  motives  and  qualified  for  such  trust  will  accept 
any  Commission  for  that  Purpose. 

"Neither  you  Sir  nor  any  one  acquainted  with  the  nature  and 
value  of  the  Essential  Rights  and  security  of  the  People  can  be 
insensible  of  the  great  mischiefs  and  dangerous  consequences 
of  being  without  a  Supreme  Court  of  Justice. 

"  To  obviate  these  evils  I  have  alone  sacrificed  my  time  and 
interest  to  preserve  the  existence  of  that  Court. 

"But  it  now  becomes  indispensably  necessary  for  me  to  go  to 
Boston  and  be  absent  from  this  Colony,  until  the  Situation  of 
my  Affairs  can  permit  me  to  return  which  cannot  possibly  be  in 
a  short  time.  As  the  Assembly  are  now  sitting  I  think  it  my 
Duty  to  give  notice  of  this,  that  you  may  see  how  necessary  it  is 
that  some  provision  be  made  for  some  other  Judge  or  Judges  of 
that  Court. 

"  Be  so  good  as  to  communicate  this  to  such  members  &  in 
such  manner  as  you  shall  think  proper. 

"I  have  nothing  further  to  add  but  only  that  whatever  here- 
after may  be  the  Event,  I  shall  have  the  satisfaction  of  having 
done  my  Duty  and  I  hope  that  you  will  do  me  the  Honour  and 
Justice  to  admit  that  no  ill  consequences  that  may  perhaps 
happen  in  this  Respect,  can  be  imputable  to 

"Your  Humble  Servant 

"B.  Prat"» 
To  this  the  Speaker  replied: — 

"Sir 

"Your  letter  of  the  15th  Instant  I  received  yesterday.    It  is 

*  Letter  Books,  I,  174-175. 


A  Colonial  Executive  289 

well  known  to  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly  that  all 
the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  except  yourself  have  resigned 
or  are  about  to  resign  their  Commissions  &  the  Cause  of  such 
Resignation  is  as  well  known  but  from  whence  that  Cause  has 
proceeded  is  not  so  well  known  and  here  not  proper  for  me  to 
inquire  into. 

"I  can't  but  think  there  are  handsome  enough  Sallaries  granted 
to  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  granted  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  the  Colony  can  have  a  right  to  expect  that  Gentlemen 
not  instigated  by  sinister  motives  and  quahfied  for  such  a  Trust 
may  accept  Commissions  for  that  purpose.  The  Members  of 
the  General  Assembly  seem  very  sensible  of  the  value  of  the 
essential  Rights  and  Security  of  the  People,  the  concern  for 
which  has  occasioned  their  granting  the  Judges  Sallaries  in  the 
manner  they  have,  and  of  the  great  mischief  and  dangerous 
consequences  of  being  without  a  Supreme  Court  of  Justice,  but 
as  it  is  not  in  their  power  to  appoint  Judges  they  think  them- 
selves not  justly  chargeable  for  any  mischievous  consequences 
for  want  thereof. 

"  I  have  communicated  your  Letter  to  several  Gentlemen  of  the 
General  Assembly  who  seem  to  be  of  opinion  to  make  provision 
for  the  Judges  Salaries  in  no  other  manner  than  they  have  ex- 
cept better  Reasons  be  offered  than  they  have  yet  had. 

"As  I  have  never  had  any  impeachment  of  your  honour  or 
Justice  or  any  imputation  to  you  of  111  consequence  attending 
such  an  event  as  you  mention  I  shall  leave  you  in  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  having  done  your  Duty  which  upon  Reflection  I 
believe  will  be  very  great  to  you.     I  am  with  Sincerity  Sir 

"Your  humble  Servant 

"W.   NiCOLL. 
"  New  York  16  /  March  1762."  * 

^  Letter  Books,  I,  175-176. 


290  Cadwallader  Colden 

III 

The  session  giving  rise  to  this  exchange  of  courtesies  had 
been  summoned  by  Colden  for  March  3,  1762,  in  response  to  a 
requisition  of  Amherst's.  Amherst  had  asked  that  the  colony 
provide  for  the  levying,  clothing,  and  paying  as  many  volun- 
teers as  it  had  raised  the  year  before,  he  himself  offering  an  addi- 
tional bounty  of  ;^5  to  each  man  enUsting  and  205.  to  the 
ofl5cer  recruiting  him.  He  asked  also  a  provision  for  re- 
cruiting the  regulars,  and  Colden  announced  that  he  had  been 
assured  that  Parliament  would  be  strongly  urged  to  make  com- 
pensation for  this  unexpected  outlay.  At  the  preliminary 
negotiations  for  peace  held  at  Versailles  the  previous  autumn, 
France  had  been  distinctly  unpleasant  to  deal  with  and  it  was 
thought  wise  to  try  the  effect  of  at  least  a  demonstration  of  force 
in  bringing  her  to  terms.  It  was  for  this  Amherst  wished  to  use 
the  regulars  who  had  been  serving  as  a  kind  of  frontier  guard, 
and  the  volunteers  were  necessary  to  iSll  their  places.  Colden 
knew,  however,  that  it  was  going  to  be  difficult  to  get  the  as- 
sembly to  comply;  and  even  his  spirit  must  have  been  broken 
by  the  long  strain  of  the  winter,  for,  in  addition  to  his  public 
troubles,  his  devoted  wife  had  died  in  January,  while  the  ill- 
nesses of  two  daughters,  one  of  which  had  terminated  fatally, 
had  deprived  him  completely  of  his  greatest  relaxation  and 
solace,  —  the  pleasures  of  family  life.  Yet  Amherst's  demands 
were  not  considered  excessive,  and  their  refusal  would  only 
spring  from  reluctance  to  do  anything  that  might  bring  Colden 
credit,  and  the  fear  of  a  standing  army  inherent  in  the  American 
colonist.  At  the  same  time  every  man  of  them  wished  that  the 
conquests  of  the  war  in  America  should  be  kept,  and  no  one 
wanted  to  be  responsible  for  annoying  the  ministry  on  the  eve 
of  the  final  treaty.  Still,  after  expressing  astonishment  and 
disappointment  at  the  necessity  of  fresh  effort  when  they  thought 


A  Colonial  Executive  291 

they  had  reached  the  heights  of  success,  the  question  was  de- 
bated long  and  furiously.  The  result  was  a  compromise.  The 
same  number  of  volunteers  was  called  for,  but  their  bounty 
being  reduced  a  third,  the  odds  were  against  their  number 
being  completed,  while  even  this  concession  was  largely  due  to 
the  influence  of  Robert  Livingston.  Livingston  told  them 
that,  if  they  advanced  the  amount  desired  as  a  loan  and  ParUa- 
ment  failed  to  pay,  at  least  it  could  never  ask  more;  whereas, 
if  the  government  kept  its  obligations,  no  dangerous  precedent 
would  be  estabhshed.^  This  argument  seems  to  have  been 
astonishingly  convincing  and  the  loan  was  made.  Moreover, 
though  the  assembly  stated  that,  vdth  their  traditions  and  prin- 
ciples, it  was  impossible  directly  to  vote  the  means  for  recruiting 
the  regulars,  they  were  moved  by  the  circumstances  to  give  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army  a  sum  of  not  more  than  £4'jgo 
for  the  use  of  the  service,  this  also  to  be  repaid  by  Parliament 
when  it  suited  the  king. 

But  the  members  had  scarcely  reached  their  homes,  after  the 
breaking-up  of  the  session,  when  Colden  was  obliged  to  recall 
them.  The  volunteers,  he  told  them,  owing  to  the  reduced 
bounty,  were  coming  in  slowly,  and  New  York,  usually  ahead, 
was  now  lagging  far  behind  the  other  provinces.^  The  assembly 
differed  with  him.  The  bounty  even  now  was  more  than  that 
offered  by  any  other  colony,  and  the  ranks  were  fiUing  up  well 
with  nearly  a  month  more  in  which  to  enhst.  They  also  re- 
fused his  request  for  a  law  impressing  the  vagrants  with  which 
the  country  was  overrun,  because  such  a  law  would  keep  them 
out  of  the  province,  and  they  would  never  enhst.  This  was,  at 
all  events,  remarkable  reasoning,  but  the  assembly  were  as  firm 
as  if  they  were  logical.^    Colden,  equally  firm,  gave  them  twelve 

*  Smith's  History,  II,  372. 

'  Journal  of  the  General  Assembly  of  N.  Y.,  II,  700-701. 


292  Cadwallader  Colden 

days  in  which  to  think  the  matter  over.  They  met  again  on  the 
19th  of  May,  and  at  once  sent  a  private  message  to  the  heu- 
tenant-governor  stating  that  the  difficulty  in  completing  the 
volunteers,  a  fact  they  had  but  just  denied,  sprang  from  the 
general  conviction  that  they  were  to  be  sent  to  the  West  Indies 
with  the  regulars.  If  the  assembly  was  assured  that  such  was 
not  the  case,  it  would  at  once  increase  the  bounty.  Colden 
promised  to  communicate  this  to  Amherst ;  Amherst,  through 
Colden,  assured  the  assembly  that  the  volunteers  would  be 
used  on  the  continent  only  and  would  be  returned  to  their 
province  as  soon  as  their  service  was  over;  the  bounty  was 
increased  and  the  quota  of  volunteers  completed. 

But  there  was  no  need  for  the  fear  existing  in  some  quarters 
lest  the  assembly  might  be  thought  to  have  yielded  to  Colden 's 
importunities  for  Colden 's  sake.  Had  the  position  of  the  politi- 
cal leaders  not  been  sufficiently  indicated  already,  the  first  issue 
of  a  new  pubhcation.  The  American  Chronicle,^  would  have 
defined  it  effectively.  This  jeuilleton,  which  could  boast  the 
most  influential  sponsors,  left  the  press  the  day  before  the  as- 
sembly met  in  March.  A  biting  arraignment  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  colonial  government,  it  could  not  have  been  more  sweep- 
ingly  critical  had  Colden  been  a  Cornbury  or  a  Cosby  instead  of 
a  hard-working  servant  of  the  crown,  and,  according  to  his 
lights,  of  the  people.  All  during  that  winter  and  spring,  though 
he  never  halted  in  his  hunt  for  ilHcit  traders,  though  he  never 
winked  at  any  refusal  to  obey  an  impress  warrant,  though, 
after  the  declaration  of  war  with  Spain,  he  took  care  that  no 
New  York  merchant  should  feed  or  clothe  or  arm  the  Spaniards, 
in  his  execution  of  the  law  he  ever  chose  the  broadest  interpre- 
tation possible  and  was  quick  to  see  where  its  pressure  could  be 
lightened. 

Questions  such  as  these  kept  him  busy  enough,  but  as  a  back- 

^  Colden  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  Letter  Books,  I,  186-192. 


A  Colonial  Executive  293 

ground  to  these  and  all  other  subjects,  filling  in  interstices,  con- 
necting persons  of  different  classes  and  matters  of  alien  import, 
absorbing  the  population  as  it  was  perhaps  absorbed  in  no 
other  colony,  was  the  interest  in  land.  With  the  practical  end 
of  the  war  and  the  exit  of  the  Frenchman  and  his  painted  allies, 
had  come  the  proclamation  of  Amherst,  throwing  open  the 
vacant  lands  on  the  northeastern  frontier.  There  followed  a 
rush  for  patents  unprecedented  in  the  experience  of  the  land 
office.  Preference  was  to  be  given  to  the  officers  who  had  served 
in  the  war,  but  with  the  king  granting  patents,  and  ordering 
that  others  be  granted,  to  Englishmen  who  had  never  seen 
America;  with  New  Hampshire  encroaching  daily;  and  with 
some  of  the  great  patentees  enlarging  their  bounds  insidiously 
but  continually,  it  was  most  difficult  to  keep  systematic  prefer- 
ence in  view.  That  there  should  be  some  who  asserted  that 
Colden  even  thus  early  in  his  administration  had  looked  well 
to  his  own  profits  in  the  matter,  was  perhaps  inevitable,  and  it  has 
been  seen  how  their  accusations  were  taken  up  by  the  Board  of 
Trade.  But,  whether  they  were  right  or  not,  —  a  question  that 
must  wait  for  discussion,  —  Colden's  determination  to  use  his 
opportunity  to  systematize  the  records,  to  safeguard  the  Ind- 
ians, and  to  compensate  the  crown  must  ever  redound  to  his 
credit. 

The  return  of  General  Monckton  from  his  successful  Mar- 
tinique campaign  brought  these  varied  activities  to  an  end,  and 
gave  Colden  what  would  have  been  to  most  men  a  welcome 
respite  from  a  petty  struggle.  Yet,  so  full  of  ambition  was  he 
still,  that  he  turned  with  but  halting  step  from  the  confining 
labours  and  the  doubtful  honour  of  his  official  position  to  the 
real  dignity  of  his  private  life.  Two  things  at  least  he  had 
accomplished:  Chief  Justice  Prat  had  a  salary  from  the  quit- 
rents,  given,  however,  in  a  sort  of  secretive  fashion ;  and  before 
the  April  term  Horsmanden  and  Jones  had  consented  to  be 


294  Cadwallader  Colden 

second  and  third  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  respectively, 
on  the  old  tenure.  But  there  remained  so  much  to  be  done 
that  he  hated  to  withdraw  his  hand  and  step  aside. 

As  it  happened,  his  retirement  was  to  be  short.  In  less  than 
a  year  Monckton  was  on  his  way  to  England  to  recuperate  his 
health,  and  Colden  was  once  more  left  in  his  place.  He  found 
the  situation  sHghtly  changed.  Prat  was  dead  and  Hors- 
manden  was  chief  justice;  David  Jones,  WilUam  Smith  pere, 
and  Robert  Livingston  were  the  puisnes ;  and  all  had  been  given 
commissions  according  to  Governor  Monckton's  special  in- 
structions. The  question  of  an  independent  judiciary  was  thus 
to  an  extent  eliminated  from  politics,  and,  although  the  effects  of 
Pontiac's  rebellion  made  it  necessary  to  apply  to  the  assembly 
for  assistance,  during  the  next  year  and  a  half  Colden 's  time 
and  interest  could  be  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  the  still- 
growing  land  problem,  and  the  even  more  vital  question  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  British  trade  laws.  Conservative  of  the 
conservatives  as  he  was,  he  saw  clearly  whither  England's  ex- 
clusive policy  was  tending,  and  ventured  to  suggest  once  more 
that  she  was  doing  no  one  any  good,  but  possibly  doing  herself 
an  injury  by  her  repressive  methods.'  When  Colden  criticised 
ministerial  judgment  never  so  faintly,  it  was  time  to  give  pause. 
But  he  might  as  well  have  spoken  to  the  wind.  His  plea  for  a 
return  to  the  old  tradition  when  the  provincial  attorney  general 
had  been  a  man  of  weight,  a  lawyer  whose  large  private  practice 
showed  general  respect  for  his  skill,  was  also  left  unheeded, 
and  England's  legal  representative  in  New  York  continued  to 
be  a  man  to  whom  no  one  else  deigned  to  intrust  his  affairs.^ 
On  the  other  hand,  the  ministry  had  hstened  to  complaints  of 
the  fee  system,  complaints  nearly  as  old  as  the  province  itself, 
and  had  seized  this  inopportune  time  to  direct  an  investigation 

*  Colden  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  Letter  Books,  I,  312. 

'  Colden  to  the  Earl  of  Egremont,  Secretary  of  State,  Letter  Books,  I,  230. 


A  Colonial  Executive  295 

of  the  subject  in  a  way  that  might  easily  have  been  interpreted 
as  a  reflection  on  the  provincial  officers.* 

Indeed,  the  haphazard  character  of  English  colonial  govern- 
ment never  had  been  more  clearly  illustrated.  Deaf  to  the  most 
appeaHng  petitions  for  intelligent  support,  credulous  of  criticism 
of  its  most  loyal  servants,  fussily  exacting  where  it  should  have 
been  liberal,  and  apathetic  where  it  should  have  been  most 
interested,  the  wonder  is  how  Colden's  patience  had  endured 
so  long.  In  all  points  connected  with  land  it  was  the  same. 
Prayers  for  interference  in  glaring  abuses  would  be  ignored, 
and  the  merest  tittle-tattle  would  result  in  the  rebuke  of  a  faith- 
ful official.  This  was  especially  disastrous  in  New  York,  where, 
as  Colden  had  reaUzed  from  the  first,  the  influence  of  the  great 
landowners  was  a  supremely  important  social  and  political 
factor.  Yet,  though  it  was  notorious  that  the  lords  of  a  manor 
returning  a  member  to  the  legislature  had  engaged  in  land 
grabbing  on  a  most  outrageous  scale,  and  had  almost  brought 
on  civil  war  with  a  neighbouring  province,  it  is  doubtful  if  a 
royal  rebuke  had  ever  reached  them.  But  Colden  persisted, 
and  was  now  using  every  argument  to  secure  instructions  to 
break  the  gigantic  patent  of  Kayaderroseres  in  western  New 
York,  while  trying  finally  to  settle  the  eastern  bounds  of  the 
province,  where  New  Hampshire  claimed  all  the  land  that  had 
been  selected  as  especially  suitable  for  the  "reduced"  officers. 

Still,  on  the  whole,  those  eighteen  months  were  comparatively 
peaceful.  Constant  criticism  there  was,  but  it  had  all  been 
uttered  before  and  had  become  almost  a  matter  of  routine. 
Moreover,  though  the  colonial  legislators  came  together  in 
September,  1764,  with  certain  real  grievances  weighing  on  their 
minds,  for  once,  apparently,  no  one  thought  Colden  even  indi- 
rectly to  blame.  It  was  now  many  years  since  the  law  known 
as  the  Sugar,  or  Molasses  Act,  had  aimed  at  prohibiting  trade 

^  Letter  Books,  I,  343,  348. 


296  Cadwallader  Colden 

with  the  foreign  West  Indies;  yet  it  had  never  seemed  so  op- 
pressive. There  were  reasons  enough  for  this.  Many  govern- 
ors had  executed  the  law  so  loosely  that  it  had  almost  been  for- 
gotten; Colden,  whether  he  liked  it  or  not,  attempted  at  least 
absolutely  to  enforce  it.  Before  the  conquest  of  Canada  the 
fear  of  the  French  had  kept  settlers  away,  had  absorbed  the 
energies  of  many  inhabitants  in  schemes  of  clandestine  trade, 
and,  in  general,  had  restricted  commercial  enterprise.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  wars  had  brought  with  them  compensating 
gains  for  the  American  merchant.  The  king's  money  had  come 
into  the  country  in  comparatively  large  quantities,  privateering 
had  been  highly  successful,  and  the  contractors  employed  by 
the  assembly  had  grown  rich.  But  now  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  country  and  its  expanding  energy  were  being  blocked 
by  an  increasing  pressure  which  had  its  source  at  Westminster. 
For,  not  content  with  those  already  existing,  Parliament  had 
lately  been  creating  new  restrictions  on  colonial  trade.  A  law 
preventing  the  exportation  of  lumber  to  Ireland  promised  a 
time  when  linen,  that  luxury  of  even  frugal  housewives,  would  be 
a  rare  possession,  while  another  practically  prohibiting  the 
issue  of  paper  money  in  the  colonies,  notwithstanding  the  good 
service  it  had  done  England  in  the  past,  had  brought  with  it 
serious  consternation.^  But  far  more  disturbing  had  been  the 
reports  of  the  London  agents  telUng  of  the  ministry's  plan  to 
tax  the  colonists  themselves,  on  their  legal  transactions,  their 
journals,  their  purchases,  by  means  of  stamps.  That  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  tax  were  to  be  devoted  to  extinguishing  the  debt 
incurred  in  the  prosecution  of  the  last  war  in  America  made 
this  promised  overthrow  of  custom,  of  tradition,  of  the  prin- 
ciple they  had  been  taught  to  consider  one  of  the  foundations  of 

^  In  1759  the  colonies  had  by  means  of  paper  money  raised  ;£i5o,ooo  for 
the  use  of  the  General  of  the  army.  Journal  of  the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y., 
II,  798. 


A  Colonial  Executive  297 

the  British  Constitution,  no  whit  less  insupportable  to  those 
who  read  and  heard.  At  first,  at  least,  they  did  not  question  the 
right  of  ParUament  to  do  as  it  proposed,  but  they  resolved 
almost  sadly  to  do  what  they  could  to  convince  their  English 
brothers  that  its  exercise  was  inexpedient  in  every  respect. 

To  men  in  this  temper  Colden  made  a  pleasant  speech  an- 
nouncing the  complete  success  of  Sir  William  Johnson  with  the 
rebel  Indians,  which  had  culminated  in  a  great  peace  meeting 
at  Niagara ;  praising  the  generosity  which  had  contributed  so 
largely  to  this  event,  and  voicing  the  approval  of  the  king. 
Now  at  last  the  colony  was  free  to  pursue  the  arts  of  peace,  and 
as  a  practical  measure  he  suggested  a  renewal  of  the  bounty  on 
hemp.  The  assembly  expressed  hearty  pleasure  at  his  news. 
"But  nothing  can  add,"  they  proceeded,  "to  the  Pleasure  we 
received  from  the  Information  your  Excellency  gives  us.  That 
his  Majesty,  our  most  gracious  Sovereign,  distinguishes  and 
approves  our  Conduct.  When  his  Service  requires  it,  we  shall 
ever  be  ready  to  exert  ourselves,  with  Loyalty,  FideUty,  and 
Zeal,  and  as  we  have  always  complied  in  the  most  dutiful  man- 
ner with  every  Requisition  made  by  his  Directions ;  We  with  all 
HumiUty  hope,  that  his  Majesty,  who,  and  whose  Ancestors 
have  long  been  the  Guardians  of  British  Liberty,  will  so  protect 
us  in  our  Rights,  as  to  prevent  our  falhng  into  the  abject  State 
of  being  forever  hereafter  incapable  of  doing  what  can  merit 
either  his  Distinction  or  Approbation.  Such  must  be  the  de- 
plorable State  of  that  Wretched  people,  who  (being  taxed  by  a 
Power  subordinate  to  none  and  in  a  great  Measure  unacquainted 
with  their  circumstances)  can  call  Nothing  their  own.  This  we 
speak  with  the  greatest  Deference  to  the  Wisdom  and  Justice 
of  the  British  Parliament,  in  which  we  confide. 

"  Depressed  with  this  Prospect  of  inevitable  Ruin,  by  the  alarm- 
ing Information  from  Home,  neither  we  nor  our  Constituents  can 
attend  to  Improvements  conducive  either  to  the  Interests  of  our 


298  Cadwallader  Colden 

Mother  Country  or  of  this  Colony.  We  shall,  however,  renew 
the  Act  for  granting  a  bounty  on  Hemp,  still  hoping  that  a  Stop 
may  be  put  to  those  Measures  which  if  carried  into  Execution, 
will  oblige  us  to  think,  that  nothing  but  extreme  Poverty  can 
preserve  us  from  the  most  insupportable  Bondage. 

"We  hope,  your  Honour  will  join  with  us,  in  an  Effort  to  secure 
that  great  Badge  of  Enghsh  Liberty,  of  being  taxed  only  with 
our  Consent ;  to  which,  we  conceive,  all  His  Majesty's  Subjects 
at  home  and  abroad  equally  entitled,  and  also  in  pointing  out 
to  the  Ministry,  the  many  mischiefs  arising  from  the  Act,  com- 
monly called  the  Sugar  Act,  both  to  us  and  Great  Britain."  ^ 

Here  was  the  opportunity  of  Colden's  life.  He  need  only 
have  said  that  he  thought  the  assembly  were  justified  in  their 
protest  and  he  would  have  attained  the  admiration  of  Americans 
everywhere.  Nor  was  there  any  reason  why  he  should  not  have 
said  so.  In  the  main  he  agreed  with  every  word  that  had  been 
uttered,  agreed,  and  understood,  understood  as  no  governor 
over  from  England  for  a  few  months  or  years  ever  could  have 
understood,  and  the  tone  of  the  whole  address  was  above  re- 
proach. Its  point  of  view  should  have  appealed  to  him,  at  least 
to  some  extent,  for  he  had  the  capacity  to  appreciate  it.  But 
his  loyalty  was  too  bigoted,  or  his  memory  too  keen.  He  would 
send  their  address,  he  replied  with  stiff  propriety,  to  those  better 
qualified  to  judge  of  its  contents,  but  England  had  done  so  much 
for  them,  they  should  wish  to  do  everything  possible  in  return. 
Still,  he  added,  though  he  considered  their  method  of  seeking 
their  end  irregular,  he  would  do  nothing  to  hinder  them,  and  even 
wished  that  the  proceedings  might  tend  to  the  benefit  of  the 
province.  It  must  be  remembered  also  in  Colden's  favour  that 
he  knew  the  authors  of  the  address  as  we  do  not.  He  knew 
their  politics,  their  unscrupulousness,  their  petty  tyranny.  He 
knew,  for  instance,  that  they  were  still  determined  to  alter  the 
^  Journal,  etc.,  II,  749. 


A  Colonial  Executive  299 

tenure  of  the  judges'  commissions;  that  they  pretended  to  be 
actuated  by  fear  of  arbitrary  removals  by  ambitious  governors ; 
and  that  in  their  petition  for  the  desired  change  they  had  de- 
clared that  the  vast  powers  of  the  New  York  judges  filled  the 
inhabitants  with  fear.  But  he  remembered  that  they  had 
ignored  his  oflfer  to  make  arbitrary  removals  impossible,  and 
he  could  not  but  know  that  the  judges  would  be  still  more  ter- 
rible when  responsible  to  no  one  and  dependent  on  the  legis- 
lature for  their  salaries.  Yet  the  language  of  their  petition 
might  have  led  the  ignorant  to  suppose  that  they  were  seeking 
their  countrymen's  good  with  a  single  mind.  How  did  he  know 
that  they  were  more  trustworthy  now?  Indeed,  he  could  not 
know,  and  it  was  perhaps  for  that  reason  he  had  refused  to  sign 
the  three  petitions  that  soon  were  sent  across  the  sea  to  king, 
Lords,  Commons,  respectively.^ 

In  these  fine  appeals  the  representatives  of  the  province 
stated  their  grievances  and  asked  for  redress.  But  not  for  them- 
selves only  did  they  plead ;  it  was  for  Great  Britain  herself  that 
they  asked  the  most  careful  consideration,  for  that  great  empire, 
more  vast  and  powerful  than  any  yet  known  to  fame,  into  which 
she  might  expand  through  the  unrestricted  development  of  her 
colonies.  Pity  it  is  that  the  splendour  of  the  vision  failed  to  stir 
that  young  king,  with  his  vaulting  ambitions,  his  disUke  of 
ministers,  his  wish  to  rule  by  himself  alone.  Here  was  a  people 
with  whom  personal  loyalty  was  a  sentiment  just  beginning  to 
have  strength,  who  were  wilUng  and  probably  able  to  govern 
themselves,  who  were  prouder  daily  of  the  name  of  Englishman, 
and  who  promised  eagerly  to  spread  the  advantages  and  share 

'  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Colden  failed  to  appreciate  the  spirit  of 
the  address  itself.  "  The  Assembly  of  this  Province  in  an  address  to  me,"  he 
wrote  Edward  Sedgwick  on  September  21st,  "  have  expressed  their  Sentiments, 
in  respect  to  being  Taxed  by  a  British  Parliament,  in  a  manner,  which  I  think 
disrespectful  and  even  indiscreet." 


300  Cadwallader  Colden 

the  burdens  of  their  inheritance.  Why  did  he  not  reduce  the 
unwieldy  colonial  system  of  his  day  to  the  simplest  terms,  and, 
allowing  the  colonists  the  fullest  measure  of  self-government  in 
their  internal  affairs,  with  all  the  commercial  privileges  of  Eng- 
lishmen, develop  a  sort  of  personal  union,  each  member  sharing 
the  benefits  of  peace  and  war  alike  ? 

IV 

In  truth  King  George  III  considered  the  point  of  view 
of  his  American  subjects  not  at  all ;  but  before  their  petition 
had  reached  him  Colden  was  deep  in  a  controversy  ^  in  which  he 
needed  all  the  influence  and  prestige  acquiescence  in  the  assem- 
bly's purposes  would  have  brought  him.  His  enemies,  however, 
were  so  resourceful  and  so  determined  that  he  should  have 
neither  influence  nor  prestige,  that  it  is  probable  they  would 
have  found  some  way  to  turn  his  action  to  his  discredit.  The 
present  controversy  sprang  from  a  suit  for  assault  brought  in 
the  October  term  of  the  Supreme  Court  by  one  Thomas  Forshey 
against  one  Waddell  Cunningham.  The  jury  found  for  the 
plaintiff,  and  when  the  defendant,  on  the  last  day  of  the  term, 
asked  his  lawyers  to  apply  for  the  right  to  appeal  to  the  governor 
in  council,  as  he  considered  ;^i5oo  damages  excessive,  they 
refused  point  blank.  This  was  suspicious,  for  they  had  them- 
selves decided  to  appeal  if  the  case  went  against  them.  Cun- 
ningham, nevertheless,  was  obhged  to  get  a  notary  public  to 
make  the  motion.  The  court  took  until  the  next  morning  to 
decide,  and  then  Cunningham's  counsel  condescended  to  advise 
a  new  motion  to  set  aside  the  verdict.  This  was  refused;  a 
petition  in  writing  from  Cunningham's  partner  and  attorney, 
asking  liberty  to  appeal  and  offering  a  bond  with  security  to 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  I,  395-398,406-419,  421-425,441-442;  Journal  of 
the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y.,  II,  786  and  795-806. 


A  Colonial  Executive  301 

abide  by  the  decision,  met  a  similar  fate ;  and,  finally,  permission 
was  denied  to  put  this  last  refusal  on  the  minutes.  Cunning- 
ham's partner,  Mr.  Robert  Ross  Waddell,  next  appealed  to 
Colden  for  an  order  to  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  bring 
the  case  before  him  in  council.  Colden  sent  for  the  attorney 
general,  showed  him  a  copy  of  the  32d  instruction  directing  the 
governor  to  permit  appeals  to  him  in  council,  and  asked  him  to 
make  out  the  proper  writ.  Kemp  said  the  only  writ  he  knew 
anything  about  was  a  writ  of  error.  Now  a  writ  of  error  in- 
volved the  verdict  only,  and,  as  then  understood,  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  merits  of  the  case.  It  was  designed  to  call  in 
question  a  flaw  in  the  legal  handling  of  the  decision  of  the  jury, 
in  the  sentence,  as  it  were,  but  it  considered  not  at  all  the 
means  by  which  that  decision  had  been  reached.  An  appeal, 
on  the  other  hand,  took  cognizance  of  everything  between  the 
crime  and  the  fixing  of  its  penalty,  points  of  fact  and  points  of 
law  alike.  This  it  was  that  Cunningham  wanted,  for  though, 
strictly  speaking,  he  had  found  fault  with  the  amount  of  his 
damages,  this  had  been  based  on  a  verdict  which  he  considered 
unjustified  by  the  facts.  He  accordingly  refused  any  substitute, 
and  Colden  promised  to  call  a  council  the  next  day  in  order  to 
put  the  matter  before  them. 

The  council  met.  Colden  presented  his  facts  with  no  con- 
tradiction from  Judges  Horsmanden  and  Smith,  who  had  been 
on  the  bench  at  the  trial,  and  then  read  the  32d  instruction. 
The  council  asked  for  copies,  but  plainly  were  opposed  to  taking 
any  action  in  the  matter.  Nevertheless,  Colden  told  them  that 
he  thought  it  his  duty  to  issue  the  writ,  adding  that  of  course 
they  would  have  an  opportunity  to  refuse  their  approval  later. 
But  when  the  writ  was  apphed  for,  it  was  found  impossible  to 
get  a  lawyer  to  advise  its  composition.  In  fact,  the  whole 
fraternity  was  getting  in  Une  to  oppose  the  appeal,  and  when 
Colden  at  length  signed  a  document  composed  with  as  much 


302  Cadwallader  Colden 

technicality  as  possible  under  the  circumstances,  he  knew  he 
was  challenging  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  province,  with  no 
reason  whatever  to  expect  help  from  abroad.  Such  disregard 
of  consequences  in  the  cause  of  duty  was  sheer  gallantry  in  a 
man  of  nearly  eighty.  Yet  he  never  thought  of  holding  back 
once  he  had  defined  the  situation  to  himself;  and  the  greater 
the  odds  against  him,  the  more  reason  he  saw  to  fight.  If  both 
lawyers  and  landowners  had  decided  that  the  decision  of  one 
provincial  court  must  be  final,  it  was,  he  thought,  an  unneces- 
sary proof  that  their  schemes  would  not  bear  publicity,  and  that 
the  honest  poor  or  the  king  himself  could  have  Uttle  hope  for 
fair  play  should  their  interests  clash  with  those  of  these  power- 
ful classes. 

The  writ,  with  another  ordering  a  stay  in  the  execution  of  the 
Supreme  Court  verdict,  was  made  returnable  on  Wednesday, 
November  14th,  and  on  that  day  Chief  Justice  Horsmanden 
produced  them  in  council  and  announced  that  he  could  have 
nothing  further  to  do  with  them.  Fourteen  days  had  been 
insufficient  for  the  transcription  of  his  reasons,  and  he  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  present  them  at  a  later  date.  His  request  being 
granted,  after  frequent  consultation  with  the  leading  lawyers 
in  town,  on  the  19th  of  December  he  addressed  the  council 
with  an  imposing  array  of  heads  and  subdivisions.  In  the 
first  place,  he  said,  England  permitted  appeals  from  the 
decisions  of  judges  only,  and  not  from  the  verdicts  of  juries. 
Hence,  as,  with  certain  well-defined  exceptions,  England's  law 
was  the  law  of  her  colonies,  there  should  be  no  departure  there- 
from without  a  very  good  reason.  That  reason  the  32d  instruc- 
tion did  not  give.  It  used,  to  be  sure,  the  word  "  appeal " ;  but 
appeals  in  common  parlance  had  come  to  mean  writs  of  error, 
and  before  1753  the  instructions  had  read  "appeal  in  cases  of 
error."  Even  this  instruction  directed  the  governor  to  issue 
writs  in  the  usual  manner,  and  as  only  writs  of  error  had  been 


A  Colonial  Executive  303 

issued,  this  would  indicate  that  they  were  surely  meant.  Finally, 
the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  were  also  members  of 
council,  were  to  have  no  vote  in  cases  of  appeal,  plainly  indicat- 
ing that  their  own  decisions  were  in  question.  For  all  these 
reasons,  in  Horsmanden's  judgment,  no  court  of  appeals  existed, 
and  there  were  a  dozen  reasons  why  none  should.  The  vast 
expense  of  recording  cases,  the  delay  in  deciding  them,  the 
elimination  of  the  invaluable  criterion  of  neighbourhood  know- 
ledge in  estimating  the  veracity  of  witnesses,  the  demand  on  the 
time  of  governor  and  council,  and  even  of  king  and  council 
—  for  the  instruction  permitted  the  submission  of  cases  to  the 
third  court  if  the  verdict  of  the  second  was  also  unsatis- 
factory ;  all  these  consequences  of  a  court  of  appeals  seemed  to 
him  insuperable  objections  to  its  establishment,  and  in  deference 
to  his  oath  he  must  refuse  to  obey  the  writs. 

A  month  later,  in  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Halifax,  Colden  showed 
himself  able  to  meet  Horsmanden  at  every  point;  but  for  the 
present  he  contented  himself  with  giving  a  few  brief  reasons 
why  he  thought  the  instruction  referred  to  a  court  of  appeals. 
He  next  proposed  the  following  question  to  be  answered  by  the 
lawyers,  who,  with  several  army  officers  and  many  townsmen, 
had  come  to  Usten  to  the  debate :  "  Has  the  King  by  the  32d 
instruction  given  an  appeal  in  all  civil  causes  from  the  courts 
of  common  law  to  the  governor  in  council  and  made  the  governor 
and  council  a  court  for  determining  such  appeals?"  Having 
had  this  reduced  to  writing,  he  read  it  the  second  time  and  then 
laid  it  on  the  table,  where  it  was  read  again  by  all  the  members 
present.  But  when  Smith  fils  had  said  he  would  not  answer 
it,  and  Mr.  Scott  that  he  would  if  he  thought  proper  but  not  if 
forced,  and  there  had  been  much  whispering  between  lawyers 
and  members,  the  latter  refused  to  second  Colden's  proposition 
and  put  the  question.  Throwing  parUamentary  usage  to  the 
winds,  Colden  moved  that  this  refusal  and  his  question  should 


304  Cadwallader  Colden 

be  entered  on  the  minutes.  At  this  Mr.  Scott  laid  his  hand  on 
OUver  Delancey's  shoulder  and  drew  him  aside.  More  whis- 
pering followed,  and  when  they  had  returned  to  their  seats  and 
Colden  had  scored  the  impropriety  of  members  entering  into 
private  conversation  with  those  who  were  not  members  while 
a  debate  was  in  progress,  Delancey  remarked  that  Mr.  Scott 
had  informed  him  that  it  was  highly  irregular  to  enter  a  question 
that  had  not  been  put  on  the  minutes.  There  was  a  chorus 
of  assent  from  the  members,  and  then  Colden  Uterally  took  the 
question  from  the  table  and  put  it  in  his  pocket  with  the  oracular 
statement,  "Then  I  know  what  is  proper  for  me  to  do."  This 
brought  Smith  fils  to  his  feet  to  say  that,  if  the  court  would  per- 
mit him  to  state  a  question,  he  would  answer  it  himself.  The 
court  being  wilUng,  he  sat  down  at  the  table  and  wrote  some- 
thing which,  after  correction  by  Scott,  proved  to  be  the  follow- 
ing: "Can  a  Court  be  legally  constituted  by  the  Crown  in  this 
colony  to  hear  civil  causes  in  the  way  of  appeal  from  a  common 
law  court  according  to  civil  laws  upon  the  whole  merits,  re- 
examining evidence  in  controlHng  the  verdict?"  This  question 
it  was  promptly  voted  to  put  to  Messrs.  Livingston,  Smith, 
Jr.,  Hicks,  Scott,  and  Duane,  all  of  whom  except  Mr.  Hicks, 
who  was  out  of  town,  answered  in  the  negative.  Finally,  in 
order  that  there  should  be  no  doubt  about  any  one's  position, 
Colden  asked  the  attorney  general  whether  the  32d  instruction 
had  constituted  a  court  of  appeals.  He  decHned  to  answer  the 
question  as  put  by  Smith,  but,  when  allowed  to  put  his  own 
query,  said  the  instruction  did  not  constitute  such  a  court,  but 
rather  a  court  of  errors. 

Still,  the  subject  was  far  from  closed.  On  the  12th  of  De- 
cember Judges  Smith  and  Livingston  presented  their  reasons 
for  refusing  to  consider  the  appeal,  and  on  the  2d  of  January 
Colden,  who  had  meanwhile  been  scanning  every  legal  volume 
within  reach  for  illuminating  instances,  gave    the  board  the 


A  Colonial  Executive  305 

result  of  his  investigations.  Early  in  December  he  had  sent 
Halifax  an  excellent  reply  to  Horsmanden's  objection.  It 
seemed  impossible,  he  said,  that  there  should  be  no  remedy  against 
a  possibly  mistaken  verdict  save  the  will  of  the  judge,  who  might 
or  might  not  grant  a  new  trial,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  judg- 
ment on  an  unassailable  verdict  could  be  set  aside  because  of 
some  technical  flaw.  Horsmanden's  argument  from  EngUsh 
precedent  he  disposed  of  in  short  order.  If  it  was  impossible 
for  the  king  to  do  in  America  what  he  could  not  do  in  England, 
what  would  become  of  the  colonial  governments,  all  differing 
from  each  other  and  from  England  in  legislative  and  adminis- 
trative forms  developed  from  royal  charters.  The  Supreme 
Court  of  their  own  province,  for  instance,  had  all  the  powers  of 
the  three  Enghsh  courts  of  King's  Bench,  Common  Pleas,  and 
Exchequer,  and  it  might  well  be  doubted  if  the  king  could  estab- 
lish such  a  composite  court  in  England.  Yet  the  common  law 
was  the  source  of  justice  in  both  England  and  her  colonies,  and 
the  whole  controversy  sprang  from  a  confusion  between  the 
law  itself  and  the  manner  of  executing  it.  Again,  the  expression, 
"in  the  Manner  which  has  been  usually  accustomed,"  did  not 
necessarily  apply  to  appeals  from  that  place;  the  expense  of 
lawsuits  might  be  diminished  rather  than  increased  by  a  check 
on  the  present  abuses ;  and  it  was  manifestly  absurd  to  say  that 
the  council  must  sit  every  day  to  hear  appeals,  when  the  Supreme 
Court  itself  barely  sat  three  weeks  in  a  year,  and  there  was  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  number  of  cases  appealed  would  be 
large.  Since  Colden  had  written  thus,  the  other  judges,  Living- 
ston and  Smith  in  semi-pubHc  speeches  and  Jones  by  letter,  had 
lined  up  with  Horsmanden ;  yet  his  researches  convinced  him 
he  had  taken  the  only  tenable  position. 

The  32d  instruction  read :  "  Our  will  and  pleasure  is  that  you, 
or  the  Commander  in  Chief  of  our  said  Province  for  the  Time 
being,  do  in  all  civil  causes,  on  AppUcation  being  made  to  you, 


3o6  Cadwallader  Colden 

allow  appeals  from  any  of  the  Courts  of  Common  Law  .  .  . 
unto  you  .  .  .  and  the  Council  .  .  . :  and  you  are  for  that 
purpose  to  issue  a  writ,  in  the  Manner  which  has  been  usually 
accustomed,  returnable  before  yourself  and  Council  .  .  .,  who 
are  to  hear  and  determine  such  Appeal;  wherein  such  of  our 
said  Council  as  shall  be  at  that  time  Judges  of  the  Court  .  .  . 
whence  .  .  .  Appeal  [Hes]  .  .  .  shall  not  vote  upon  said  Ap- 
peal; but  they  may  be  present  at  the  Hearing  thereof  to  give 
reasons  given  by  them.  .  .  .  Provided  .  .  .  the  .  .  .  value 
appealed  for  .  .  .  exceed  three  hundred  pounds  sterling;  and 
that  Security  be  first  .  .  .  given  by  the  Appelant  to  answer 
such  Charges  as  shall  be  awarded,  in  case  the  first  Sentence  be 
affirmed;  and  if  either  party  shall  not  rest  satisfied  .  .  .  our 
will  and  pleasure  is  that  they  may  then  appeal  unto  us  in  our 
Privy  Council,  provided  the  value  exceed  five  hundred  pounds 
sterling,  .  .  .  and  good  security  given  by  the  Appelant.  .  .  . 
Provided  .  .  .  where  matter  .  .  .  relates  to  taking  or  de- 
manding any  duty  payable  to  us,  or  to  any  Fee  of  Ofl&ce,  or 
annual  rent,  .  .  .  you  are  to  admit  an  appeal  to  us  in  our 
Privy  Council,  though  immediate  value  [be]  .  .  .  less.  And 
it  is  our  further  pleasure  that  .  .  .  execution  be  suspended, 
until  the  final  Determination  of  such  Appeal  .  .  .  unless  .  .  . 
sufficient  security  be  given  by  the  Appellee  to  make  ample  res- 
titution .  .  .,  in  case  .  .  .  such  judgment  .  .  .  [be]  reversed." 
The  33d  instruction  proceeded  :  "You  are  likewise  to  admit 
appeals  unto  us  in  Council,  in  all  cases  of  fines  ...  for  Mis- 
demeanors, provided  the  sum  amounts  to  two  hundred  pounds 
sterling,  the  Appellant  first  giving  good  security.  .  .  ."  There- 
fore, ran  Colden 's  argument,  if  for  appeal  you  were  to  under- 
stand "writ  of  error,"  the  American  would  have  no  relief 
whatever  in  a  suit  involving  less  than  three  hundred,  or,  in  one 
case,  two  hundred  pounds,  sterling;  whereas  an  Englishman 
could  get  a  writ  of  error  in  a  suit  for  forty  shillings.     An  act  of 


A  Colonial  Executive  307 

Parliament  regulated  the  security  to  be  demanded  in  case  of 
error;  the  instruction  provided  for  the  security  to  be  given  in 
case  of  an  appeal.  If  they  both  meant  the  same  thing,  this  vi^as 
quite  unnecessary.  Again,  the  instructions  ordered  a  suspension 
of  proceedings  in  the  event  of  an  appeal ;  a  writ  of  error  in  itself 
acted  as  a  stay  of  proceedings.  Finally,  the  English  judges  of 
high  rank  decided  on  the  errors  of  their  inferiors;  if  the  32d 
instruction  gave  the  governor  and  council  the  power  of  correct- 
ing the  technical  mistakes  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
it  would  be  authorizing  a  set  of  men,  who  might  or  might  not 
have  read  a  single  legal  treatise,  to  pass  on  the  decisions  of  the 
leading  lawyers  in  the  province.  If  the  word  still  remained 
doubtful,  Golden  added,  the  33d  instruction  would  surely  make 
it  clear,  for  how  was  it  possible  to  tell  whether  a  fine  was  ex- 
cessive or  not  if  the  merits  of  the  case  were  not  to  come  up  for 
discussion. 

On  the  day  when  Golden  gave  the  council  his  matured  opinion 
based  on  these  and  many  other  facts,  he  held  in  his  hand  a  paper 
to  which  he  occasionally  referred,  and  he  had  scarcely  finished 
speaking  before  he  was  asked  for  a  copy,  a  request  that  was 
repeated  again  and  again.  He  did  not  grant  it,  however,  until 
the  next  day,  and  then  only  with  reluctance.  He  had,  he  said, 
merely  jotted  down  a  few  notes  to  aid  him  in  his  purpose  of 
presenting  his  point  of  view  so  clearly  that  it  would  be  easy  for 
the  council  to  point  out  his  mistakes,  when  by  free  discussion 
they  might  come  to  a  mutual  understanding.  For  this  reason 
he  was  sending  them  the  copy  they  wanted,  but  only  in  the  strict- 
est confidence.  Hence  it  was  with  indignation  that  at  the  next 
meeting  of  the  council  he  Ustened  to  a  paper  in  answer  to  his 
notes,  prepared  by  the  lawyers,  but  concluding  with  what 
assumed  to  be  the  council's  final  judgment,  a  formal  dismissal 
of  the  appeal.  To  make  their  position  certain,  moreover,  the 
members  at  once  adopted  this  dictum,  ordering  it  read  by  a 


3o8  Cadwallader  Colden 

unanimous  vote.  But  after  a  vigorous  protest  by  Colden,  who 
claimed  his  right  to  be  considered  as  part  of  the  council  and 
decried  such  a  use  of  his  notes,  some  members  proposed  with- 
drawing their  statement,  and  then  the  meeting  adjourned  to 
the  next  day.  The  members  now  changed  their  tactics,  and 
proposing  Colden's  old  and  discarded  question  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  32d  instruction,  answered  it  themselves.  The 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  the  most  prominent  lawyers 
of  the  province,  they  said,  had  declared  that  the  instruction  re- 
ferred to  an  appeal  in  error  only,  and  therefore  they,  unanimously 
believing  this  to  be  true,  could  take  cognizance  of  no  other. 
Colden  entered  his  dissent  and  said  that  he  would  refer  the 
matter  to  the  ministry ;  but  when  the  members  desired  the  law- 
yers' argument  inserted  in  the  minutes  as  the  reason  for  their 
action,  omitting,  however,  the  clause  assuming  to  be  the  coun- 
cil's decision,  he  remained  passive,  though  he  thought  the  pro- 
ceeding irregular. 

The  lawyers  had  added  little  that  was  new  and  less  that 
was  convincing  to  Horsmanden's  deductions,  and  Colden, 
indeed,  held  a  logically  impregnable  position.  Clearly,  the 
instructions  aimed  at  providing  some  relief  from  an  unfair 
verdict,  and  while  the  method  outlined  might  not  have  been 
ideal,  there  seemed  little  reason  for  such  fierce  opposition 
until  it  had  been  tested  and  found  oppressive.  Moreover, 
its  opponents  offered  no  substitute,  and  considering  man's 
fallibiUty,  something  of  the  sort  seemed  absolutely  necessary. 
Finally,  the  members  of  the  council  were  at  least  as  well 
able  to  deal  with  points  of  fact  as  with  points  of  law,  and 
few  cases  were  hkely  to  cross  the  Atlantic.  But  no  one 
had  forgotten  Colden's  refusal  to  sign  the  popular  petitions 
of  the  year  before,  and  no  one  paid  very  much  attention 
to  what  he  had  to  say  now.  Perhaps  no  one  would  have 
done  so  in  any  case.    It  was  evident  that  the  suits  most  likely 


A  Colonial  Executive  309 

to  be  appealed  were  those  instituted  against  the  great  pro- 
prietors by  neighbouring  landlords,  or  by  energetic  officials  in 
behalf  of  the  crown.  Always  in  close  connection  with  the 
judges  and  often  the  judges  themselves,  they  hitherto  had  been 
so  free  to  execute  their  schemes  that  the  prospect  of  even  an 
occasional  check  was  most  unpleasing.  It  was,  therefore,  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  that  their  powerful  influence  would  be  added 
to  the  more  active  efforts  of  their  natural  allies,  the  lawyers, 
to  make  Cunningham's  appeal  a  unique  event.  Moreover, 
England's  policy  offered  an  easy  way  to  win  the  popular  sup- 
port that  had  come  to  be  a  necessity  for  success.  The  right  to 
appeal  was  coupled  with  the  inability  to  import  from  Martinique 
or  Guadaloupe,  and  with  the  possibility  of  a  man  being  forced 
to  pay  something  to  the  king  every  time  he  bought  a  news- 
paper, and  so  skilfully  that  it  seemed  as  great  a  grievance  as 
the  other  two.  Colden  figured  in  the  press  as  a  tyrant  of  sinister 
intentions,  and  an  enemy  to  all  liberty,  while  great  pains  were 
taken  to  inform  the  people  of  the  progress  of  affairs  in  the  way 
that  seemed  proper  to  his  opponents.  The  proceedings  in  coun- 
cil were  published;  the  chief  justice's  speech,  with  a  preface 
by  John  Morin  Scott,  was  prepared  in  pamphlet  form  especially 
for  use  in  England ;  the  New  York  Weekly  Post  Boy  devoted  a 
column  to  the  subject  under  the  heading  of  ''The  Sentinell," 
and  later,  these  articles,  supposed  to  be  contributed,  were  issued 
separately  and  widely  distributed.  The  text  of  all  this  Htera- 
ture  had  two  parts :  Colden  was  trying  to  undermine  the  Eng- 
lish Constitution  by  eliminating  the  glorious  privilege  of  trial 
by  jury,  and  he  was  criminally  erecting  a  new  court.  To  be 
sure,  Colden  had  answered  the  first  charge  with  tolerable  success. 
To  be  sure,  also,  when  the  instruction  forbidding  the  establish- 
ment of  any  new  court  had  been  significantly  read  in  council, 
he  had  expressed  himself  as  unable  to  understand  its  signifi- 
cance and  disclaimed  any  idea  or  purpose  at  variance  with  a 


3IO  Cadwallader  C olden 

determination  to  carry  out  the  instruction.     But  answer  and 
protest  were  alike  in  vain. 

Granted  that  the  32d  instruction  was  obscure,  said  one  con- 
tributor, a  fact,  however,  that  he  would  not  admit,  "Must  not  a 
man  be  as  regardless  of  the  honour  of  the  Crown  as  of  the  liberty 
of  the  subject  before  he  can  venture  on  an  interpretation  which 
supposes  the  royal  order  to  aim  at  altering  the  ancient  and  fun- 
damental laws  of  the  land?"  The  statement  that  the  colonists 
were  aiming  at  independence  was  declared  absurd.  If  they 
possessed  all  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  they  had  no  need  of 
independence.  If  they  did  not,  why  should  they  prefer  the 
British  to  the  French  or  any  other  constitution  ?  If,  moreover, 
Golden 's  interpretation  was  sustained,  and  if  the  right  of  appeal 
in  criminal  causes  should  be  added,  "From  such  a  system,"  it 
was  solemnly  avowed,  "The  Star  Ghamber  would  be  a  redemp- 
tion." The  most  absurd  attempts  at  wit  were  received  with 
applause.  The  writ  issued  under  such  difficulties  had  directed 
the  judges  to  lay  aside  all  other  matters  and  cause  the  proceed- 
ings to  be  brought  before  the  governor  in  council.  "What  a 
most  important  cause  is  this,"  some  one  thought  it  worth  while 
to  write,  "for  the  sake  of  which  the  judges  must  even  desist  from 
saying  their  prayers."  It  was  smartly  remarked  that  the  new 
system  had  been  proposed  by  "notaries,  apothecaries,  and  old 
women,"  and  "a  droll  fray  between  physick  and  law  and  cele- 
brating the  victory  of  the  latter,"  amused  many.  The  serious- 
minded  writers,  however,  were  the  more  truly  humorous. 
"Pray  who  is  the  inflamer  of  the  people,"^  asked  one  of  these  in 
reference  to  a  just  remark  of  Colden's,  "Caesar,  who  says  they 
are  not  entitled  to  any  Uberty,  and  deprives  them  of  what  they 
have,  or  Brutus,  who  tells  his  countrymen  that  Caesar  is  a  vil- 
lain for  so  saying  and  acting?"  "Surely  no  man  can  expect," 
said  another,  "to  conciUate  the  good  graces  of  the  ministry  by 

1  "The  Sentinell,"   March  14,  1765. 


A  Colonial  Executive  311 

representing  them  as  having  intended,  what,  if  they  did  really 
intend,  would  render  them  highly  criminal,  and  in  all  proba- 
biHty  raise  against  them  the  indignation  of  a  British  parliament. 
I  am  rather  inclined  to  think,  that  whoever  has  been  prompted 
by  views  like  these,  would  soon  find  himself  to  have  overacted 
his  part ;  and  should  such  an  event  happen,  I  am  confident  it 
would  not  enhance  the  price  of  mourning  a  single  farthing." 
A  more  fair-minded  critic  indeed  acknowledged  that  the  preva- 
lent dissatisfaction  could  be  traced  to  the  fact  that  they  lived 
under  a  government  "the  most  free,  the  most  equal,  and  the 
most  happy"  that  had  ever  existed;  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
Brutus  and  the  Star  Chamber  made  more  impression  on  the 
Post  Boy's  readers. 

Indeed,  however  necessary  it  was  to  paint  the  issues  of  the 
day  in  broad  lines  for  the  benefit  of  a  not  over-enlightened  people, 
there  is  something  so  meretricious  about  the  New  York  leaders 
and  their  utterances  at  this  time  that  it  is  impossible  to  feel  much 
sympathy  with  them.  It  was  now  not  much  more  than  two 
years  since  the  representatives  of  the  colony  had  petitioned  the 
king  for  judges  during  good  behaviour,  because  "such  a  pleni- 
tude of  uncontroulable  Power  in  a  court,  whose  Determinations 
under  so  large  a  Sum  are  understood  to  be  neither  reversible 
by  Writ  of  Error  or  Appeal,  in  Persons  who  cannot  in  the 
Colony  be  impeached,  and  whom  there  are  no  hereditary  Lords 
here  to  try,  is  an  Object  beheld  with  Terror  !  "  ^  Could  incon- 
sistency further  go  ?  Surely,  such  a  change  of  opinion  needs  a 
more  plausible  explanation  than  an  outburst  of  the  spirit  of 
Hampden  and  Pym.  Moreover,  though  the  fine  patriotism  of 
the  assembly's  petitions  compels  admiration,  the  more  informal 
and  probably  more  sincere  statements  of  the  Whig  party  show 
a  disposition  to  bring  England  to  terms  or  cast  her  aside,  to 
disregard  all  reasons  of  sentiment  for  continued  union,  that  was 

1  Journal  of  the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y.,  II,  718. 


312  Cadwallader  C olden 

the  reverse  of  conciliatory  and  must  have  brought  forebodings 
to  the  loyaUsts  even  then. 

V 

The  ministry  not  complying  with  Colden's  plea  for  prompt 
support,  the  rigour  of  his  critics  lost  some  of  its  vehemence,  at 
least  temporarily.  But  no  sooner  had  he  entertained  hopes  of 
a  somewhat  peaceful  spring,  than  he  received  a  ministerial  re- 
buke because  he  had  not  assisted  several  gentlemen  of  the  Fox 
connection  as  he  should  have  done.  Lord  Holland,  Lord 
Ilchester,  and  a  Mr.  O'Brien,  who  had  married  Lord  Ilchester's 
daughter,  had  obtained  a  grant  of  a  huge  but  undefined  tract 
of  land  in  the  province  of  New  York,  and  Golden  was  blamed 
for  the  fact  that  it  was  still  unlocated.  Keenly  hurt  as  he  was 
by  all  English  criticism,  he  spent  the  next  few  weeks  in  setthng 
the  grievances  of  the  syndicate  and  those  of  other  Britons  who 
wanted  to  be  American  landlords,  and  then  left  town  for  the 
summer.  The  tree-planted  streets  and  flower-smothered  houses 
made  the  little  city  look  like  a  big  garden,  and  aroused  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  travelhng  foreigner,  but  it  was  not  considered 
a  desirable  dwelling-place  in  "the  heats,"  and  few  of  its  wealthier 
inhabitants  were  without  a  near-by  country  place.  Colden's 
work  followed  him  to  Long  Island,  however,  and  so  rapidly 
did  business  relating  especially  to  land  grants  accumulate, 
that  a  meeting  of  the  council  soon  became  desirable.  But 
the  members  were  in  a  notoriously  bad  humour,  and  Colden 
delayed  the  evil  day  until  another  storm  broke  about  his 
head. 

Despite  his  long-harboured  conviction  that  the  colonists  were 
never  far  from  rebelUon,  he  had  heard  or  seen  nothing  to  make 
him  think  they  were  nearer  than  they  had  been,  and  had  re- 
mained  oddly   ignorant   of  the   bitter   resolution   which   was 


A  Colonial  Executive  313 

planning  organized  opposition  from  Maine  to  the  Carolinas. 
It  was  now  some  months  since  the  threatened  legislation  had 
become  a  reahty.  The  Stamp  Act  had  been  passed,  and  soon 
after,  astonishingly  soon,  considering  the  distance  England  then 
was  from  America,  copies  at  a  shilHng  apiece  could  be  bought 
in  all  the  large  colonial  towns,  while  newspapers  and  pamphlets 
ofifered  the  most  radical  advice  for  its  treatment.  But  extreme 
language  suited  only  to  a  supreme  crisis  had  been  used  so  long, 
that  it  is  perhaps  not  surprising  that  Golden  suspected  nothing 
unusual.  In  July,  indeed,  he  had  ordered  the  Fort  guard, 
which  had  been  sent  south  by  Gage  in  May,  to  be  replaced  by 
a  detail  of  the  Sixtieth  Regiment  of  Artillery.  He  was  probably 
also  comfortably  aware  that  their  major,  Arthur  James,  having 
formed  certain  opinions  of  his  own,  and  finding  the  city's  mili- 
tary stores  scanty  and  in  bad  repair,  had  personally  seen  to  their 
renovation  and  supply.  Yet  as  far  as  he  could  observe,  the 
people  did  not  seem  greatly  agitated ;  the  Farmers'  Almanacs, 
issued  earlier  than  usual  on  purpose,  recorded  the  rates  in  a 
matter-of-fact  way,  and  Mr.  James  McEvers,  who  had  been 
appointed  distributor  of  stamps  for  New  York,  had  gone  out 
to  Flushing  to  offer  his  security  w^th  all  confidence  that  the 
duties  of  the  office  could  be  executed.  It  was  therefore  with 
astonished  dismay  that,  on  the  30th  of  August,  Golden  received 
Mr.  McEver's  resignation.  A  week  or  so  before,  to  the  "sur- 
prize and  joy"  of  the  people  of  Boston,  an  effigy  of  a  stamp 
distributor  had  been  strung  up  on  a  tall  tree  in  the  High 
Street,  and  later,  placed  on  a  bier,  carried  about  the  town, 
and  then  burned  on  Fort  Hill,  the  wood  for  the  bonfire  hav- 
ing been  taken  from  a  half- finished  building  destined  to 
hold  the  stamps.  This  "a  number  of  reputable  people" 
levelled  to  the  ground,  while  they  broke  the  windows  in  the 
stamp  distributor's  house,  permitted  the  crowd  which  had  fol- 
lowed to  enter  it  "in  multitudes,"  and  so  frightened  the  man 


314  Cadwallader  C  olden 

himself  that  he  resigned.     Frankly  averse  to  repeating  his  ex- 
perience, McEvers  chose  to  be  discreet  and  resigned  also/ 

This  was  disurbing  enough ;  but  the  same  day  General  Gage 
wrote  to  say  that  he  considered  the  insurrectionary  articles  in 
the  papers  most  alarming,  and  to  ask  if  he  could  be  of  any  as- 
sistance. Action  of  some  sort  seemed  imperative,  and  Golden, 
who  had  received  no  word  from  England  on  the  subject,  and 
who  did  not  even  know  the  name  of  the  vessel  on  which  the 
stamps  were  coming,  went  up  to  town  and  called  a  council. 
Only  three  members  answered  his  summons  on  September  3d, 
and  these  announced  themselves  unwilhng  to  take  the  respon- 
sibiUty  of  advising  him;  but  a  peremptory  summons  to  the 
others  secured  a  meeting  on  September  7th,  and  another  fol- 
lowed on  September  9th.  On  both  occasions  the  members 
denied  any  necessity  for  the  defence  of  the  city,  a  denial  con- 
firmed by  the  city  magistrates,  while  large  and  orderly  meetings 
of  the  gentlemen  of  the  town  seemed  to  lend  plausibihty  to  the 
statement  that  there  was  to  be  no  violence.  Still  there  had  been 
another  big  riot  in  Boston;  the  New  Haven  stamp  distributor 
had  been  pleasantly  asked  if  he  would  yield  the  stamps  on  their 
arrival,  or  have  his  house  pulled  down;  it  was  said  all  about 
town  that  the  stamps  would  never  leave  their  ship ;  and  the  more 

^  Meanwhile  the  popular  ardour  was  being  kindled  by  such  songs  as  the 
following :  — 

He  who  for  a  Post,  or  base  sordid  Pelf, 

His  Country  betrays,  makes  a  Rope  for  himself; 

Of  this  an  Example  before  you  we  bring, 

In  these  infamous  Rogues,  who  in  Efl&gy  swing. 


Those  Blessings  our  Fathers  obtained  by  their  Blood, 
We  are  justly  obUg'd  as  their  Sons  to  make  good; 
All  internal  Taxes  let  us  then  nobly  Spurn, 
These  Efl&gies  first  —  next  the  Stamped  Papers  burn. 

Chorus:  Sing  Tartarara,  burn  all,  burn  all. 


A  Colonial  Executive  315 

conservative  of  the  New  York  weeklies,  in  congratulating  the 
friends  of  Mr.  McEvers,  said  that,  though  he  had  cleared  him- 
self from  "the  Imputation  of  joining  the  Design  to  enslave  his 
country"  of  his  own  free  will,  it  was  probably  "no  more  safe 
than  honourable  for  any  other  to  attempt  it."  ^  But  Golden 
had  done  one  or  two  things  that  made  his  mind  easier.  The  day 
of  his  return  to  town  a  rehef  for  the  artillery  regiment  happening 
to  arrive  from  England,  it  had  been  ordered  into  the  Fort,  and 
the  garrison  now  numbered  one  hundred  men  besides  officers; 
General  Gage  had  received  a  suggestion  of  the  desirabiUty  of 
quartering  a  battahon  of  regulars  in  the  city  barracks  on  the 
Common ;  and  Golden  had  advised  the  receiver  general,  Gap- 
tain  Kennedy,  to  bespeak  all  vessels  coming  within  Sandy 
Hook  until  he  should  discover  the  ship  bringing  the  stamps, 
when  he  was  to  tell  the  captain  of  his  danger  and  act  as  his 
escort  until  the  cargo  was  secured. 

The  rest  of  the  month  of  September  passed  in  tolerable  quiet, 
and  Golden  noted  somewhat  pathetically  that  he  could  walk 
the  streets  without  receiving  any  marks  of  disrespect.  There 
were  many  indications,  however,  that  the  excitement  had  not 
reached  its  cUmax.  The  governors  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Gonnecticut  wrote  begging  Golden  to  take  care  of  their  stamps, 
while  the  friends  of  the  New  Hampshire  distributor  promised 
to  leave  him  to  popular  vengeance  should  he  presume  to  exe- 
cute his  office,  and  the  Gonnecticut  official  was  made  to  resign 
in  a  spectacular  manner,  one  of  the  requirements  being  the 
repeated  recital  of  the  words  "Liberty  and  Property."  The 
distributor  for  Maryland,  moreover,  arrived  in  town,  having 
fled  precipitately  from  a  mob  which  threatened  to  force  his 
resignation,  only  to  find  every  tavern  door  in  New  York  closed 
to  him,  and  himself  obliged  to  ask  a  lodging  in  the  Fort.  Golden 
gave  him  a  bed  in  his  own  house,  but  he  refused  to  take  care  of 

^  Gaines's  Weekly  Mercury,  August  19,  1765. 


3i6  Cadwallader  C olden 

any  stamps  except  his  own,  not  feeling  particularly  desirous  of 
any  increase  of  responsibility. 

About  this  time  also  Colden  heard  that  the  assembly  in  Massa- 
chusetts had  issued  invitations  to  the  continental  colonies  to 
send  representatives  to  a  convention  to  be  held  in  New  York 
during  the  first  week  in  October  for  the  discussion  of  questions 
relating  to  the  famous  act.  Whereupon  he  gravely  pronounced 
it  illegal  and  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution  of  the  colonies, 
as  they  were  supposed  to  be  distinct  and  independent  from  each 
other  in  government.  But  the  men  from  South  CaroUna  were 
already  at  the  door,  a  week  or  more  ahead  of  time,  and  Colden 's 
protest  was  probably  listened  to  by  no  one. 

He  made  another  vehement  protest  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
on  the  pubUcation  of  an  unusually  seditious  sheet  styled 
the  Constitutional  Courant,  curiously  enough  having  sent  an 
account  of  it  to  FrankUn  by  the  preceding  ship  in  order  that  he 
might  know  all  about  it  first,  and  in  full  confidence  of  his  sym- 
pathy. The  paper,  it  seemed,  had  not  gone  through  the  New 
York  post-office,  but  had  been  delivered  to  the  post-rider  at 
Woodbridge,  New  Jersey,  by  James  Parker,  the  well-known 
printer,  from  which  point  it  had  been  distributed  by  him  and 
other  post-riders  throughout  New  York  and  several  other  colo- 
nies. It  was  Colden 's  opinion  that  Parker  had  printed  it  on 
the  refusal  of  another  New  York  printer  to  do  so,  and  he  thought 
Franklin  might  be  able  to  tell  by  the  types. 

At  length,  on  the  i8th  of  October,  the  good  ship  Edward 
Davis  J  containing  the  stamps  and  goods  for  various  consignees 
besides,  arrived  at  Sandy  Hook,  whence,  successively  escorted 
by  a  frigate,  a  sloop,  and  a  man-of-war,  it  sailed  up  the  Narrows 
and  anchored  under  cover  of  the  guns  of  the  fort.  The  stamps 
were  accompanied  by  no  bill  of  lading  or  word  of  directions, 
and  Colden  called  a  council  at  once.  Only  three  members 
attended,  —  Chief  Justice  Horsmanden,  Judge  Smith,  and  Mr. 


A  Colonial  Executive  317 

Reid ;  and  these  refused  to  give  any  advice  without  a  full  board. 
If  they  should  advise  the  detention  of  the  ship,  they  said,  every 
man  with  goods  on  board  would  want  to  sue  for  damages. 
They  did  suggest,  however,  that  a  sloop  be  hired  to  take  off  the 
goods,  but  there  was  no  sloop  to  be  had,  and  Golden  was  astute 
enough  to  refuse  to  impress  one.  Instead,  he  ordered  the 
captains  of  the  king's  ships  in  the  harbour  to  remove  the  goods 
in  order  to  get  at  the  stamps,^  and  by  the  26th  of  October,  all 
but  three  of  the  packages  were  safe  in  his  Majesty's  ship  Gar- 
land, those  three  being  so  far  down  in  the  hold  that  their  removal 
would  have  endangered  the  ship.  There  they  remained  one 
or  two  days  and  then  were  taken  into  the  Fort  at  noonday 
without  a  guard  and  without  any  disturbance.  The  feeling  of 
opposition,  however,  had  never  been  more  intense,  and  now  it 
was  opposition  that  felt  itself  supported  and  justified  by  the 
attitude  of  the  whole  Atlantic  seaboard  from  the  Kennebec  to 
the  Savannah.  Not  only  had  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  proved 
the  colonial  representatives  to  be  one  in  sentiment,  commer- 
cially at  least,  but  the  treatment  of  the  stamp  distributors 
showed  that  the  people,  New  Englanders  and  Southerners  ahke, 
were  inspired  by  a  common  feeUng,  North  CaroUna,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Rhode  Island  also  having  by  this  time  made  it 
certain  that  the  officials  selected  for  that  purpose  should  not 
distribute  a  stamp  within  their  borders.  When  the  stamps 
were  coming  up  New  York  Bay  every  merchant  ship  in  the 
harbour  dropped  her  colours,  while  that  night  notices  threaten- 
ing all  persons  handling  them  were  posted  on  the  doors  of  all 
pubhc  offices,  at  street  corners,  and  in  the  coffee-houses.  In- 
deed, the  inhabitants  were  planning  to  give  a  cold  reception 
to  British  consignments  in  general.  Many  gentlemen  had 
promised  to  import  nothing  whatever  until  Great  Britain  should 
realize  her  mistake ;  a  Homespun  Market  was  to  be  held  once 

^  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  48. 


3i8  Cadwallader  C olden 

a  week  in  the  New  Exchange,  and  Dorothea  in  the  city,  with 
less  patriotism  perhaps  than  her  Puritan  cousins  would  have 
shown,  was  already  writing  to  Phylhs  in  the  country  that  she  was 
to  be  forced  to  make  a  fright  of  herself. 

Yet  all  this  did  not  prevent  Golden  from  quietly  making 
ready  with  the  aid  of  his  son  David  to  put  the  stamps  in  cir- 
culation on  November  ist,  the  day  appointed  by  the  law.  Here 
he  undoubtedly  made  his  great  mistake,  and  nothing  shows  this 
more  clearly  than  the  very  different  line  of  conduct  followed 
by  the  governor  of  Massachusetts.  Reports  having  been  cir- 
culated that  this  official  was  going  to  distribute  the  stamps,  he 
called  his  council  together  and  told  them  that  such  a  report  was 
absurd.  It  was  true  he  was  going  to  have  the  stamps  placed 
in  the  Castle,  which  he  was  going  to  strengthen  with  every  means 
in  his  power;  but  he  was  certainly  not  going  to  make  himself 
ridiculous  by  assuming  the  responsibihty  for  so  much  valuable 
property.  He  said,  moreover,  that  he  was  going  to  strengthen 
the  Castle  for  two  reasons,  —  to  prevent  insult  to  the  king, 
and  to  save  the  town  from  having  to  answer  for  the  stamped 
papers.^  This  was  common  sense,  and  Colden  would  have 
done  well  to  follow  the  example  of  his  brother  executive.  There 
was  plenty  of  time  for  this,  for  the  Boston  governor  had  made 
his  decision  nearly  two  months  before.  But,  as  has  been  said, 
Colden  had  other  plans,  and  his  son  even  went  so  far  as  to  ask 
the  ministry  for  the  office  of  distributor  of  stamps,  though 
people  were  saying  that  in  the  London  coffee-houses  they 
were  betting  a  hundred  guineas  to  ten  that  the  bill  would  be 
repealed  when  Parhament  met  in  November,  and  though  the 
master  of  the  ship  bringing  the  stamps  was  so  infected  by  the 
prevailing  spirit  that  he  humbly  apologized  for  what  he  had 
done. 

Impossible  as  it  may  seem,  two  circumstances  occurred  in 
^  Gaines's  Mercury^  September  i6,  1765. 


A  Colonial  Executive  319 

October  which  promised  to  make  it  even  more  difficult  for  Colden 
to  force  his  point  on  November  ist  than  it  would  have  been  a 
month  earlier.  It  seems  that  after  the  council  of  New  York 
had  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  his  appeal,  Waddell 
Cunningham  had  petitioned  the  king  in  council  to  hear  his  case. 
The  matter  was  referred  to  the  committee  for  hearing  appeals 
from  the  plantations,  and  they  had  reported  that,  as  appeals  only 
lay  to  the  king  in  council  from  his  council  of  New  York,  the 
proper  procedure  must  be  maintained,  and  Cunningham's  ap- 
plication was  refused.  The  privy  councillors,  however,  had  been 
impressed  by  Colden 's  careful  information,  and  they  ordered 
the  council  of  New  York  to  hear  Cunningham's  appeal.^  Their 
order  reached  New  York  in  October,  and  on  the  9th  Colden, 
having  first  communicated  it  to  the  council,  issued  writs  to  the 
same  effect  as  those  that  had  so  disturbed  the  province  the  year 
before.  The  same  day  Cunningham's  attorney  also  appUed 
to  the  Supreme  Court  for  permission  to  appeal  to  the  governor 
in  council,  asking  besides  that  counsel  be  appointed  to  assist 
him.  The  judges  asked  what  right  he  had  to  do  so,  and  when 
he  showed  Cunningham's  power  of  attorney,  said  that  this  was 
not  sufficient,  and  even  if  it  was,  they  could  not  grant  his  request, 
as  there  was  no  proper  writ  authorizing  them  to  send  up  the 
records,  and  they  were  not  empowered  to  assign  counsel  where 
they  had  no  jurisdiction.  Here  for  a  time  the  case  rested ;  but 
meanwhile  the  popular  resentment  at  Colden 's  course  in  the 
affair  was  boundless,  and  though  other  news  gave  the  enraged 
citizens  some  satisfaction,  it  did  not  lessen  their  abhorrence  of 
the  Ueutenant-governor. 

VI 

It  was  now  known  to  every  one  that  Sir  Henry  Moore  had 
been  appointed  governor-in-chief  of  the  province,  and  might  be 

^  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  39-42. 


320  Cadwallader  C olden 

expected  at  any  moment.  Golden,  therefore,  could  enjoy  his 
somewhat  tenuous  honours  little  longer,  and  for  this  reason  he 
delayed  the  renewal  of  his  oaths  of  office  as  long  as  possible, 
such  renewal  being  enjoined  on  all  officers  of  government  on 
or  before  the  last  day  of  October.  But  when  the  31st  at  length 
arrived  he  complied  with  the  law.  It  happened,  however, 
that  this  law  had  not  been  sent  over  that  year  as  was  customary, 
and  one  Supreme  Court  justice  at  least  said  that  this  freed 
Colden  from  all  obHgation.  Indeed,  the  lawyers  had  deter- 
mined that  he  should  not  renew  his  oaths,  and  when  he  chose 
to  do  so,  as  did  also  every  other  governor  on  the  continent, 
they  promptly  showed  their  disapproval.  By  promising  to 
see  that  all  laws  were  enforced,  he  had  in  effect  promised  to 
enforce  the  Stamp  Act,  and  almost  at  once  placards  appeared 
in  the  Merchants'  Coffee-house,  and  at  street  corners  which 
accused  the  lieutenant-governor  of  having  "bound  himself  by 
an  oath  to  be  the  Chief  Murderer  of  the  Rights  and  Privileges 
of  the  People ;  to  be  an  Enemy  to  his  King,  his  Country,  and 
Mankind,"  ^  and  threatened  him  with  death  in  case  he  attempted 
to  keep  his  word  to  the  letter. 

The  excitement  in  the  city  had  become  intense.  All  sorts  of 
rumours  were  afloat,  and  that  very  morning  a  man  had  come  to 
Colden  to  tell  him  that  there  was  a  plot  on  foot  to  bury  Major 
James  alive  that  day  or  the  next.  He  said  he  had  the  tale  from 
a  certain  shoemaker,  and  Colden  at  once  despatched  him  to 
the  mayor  for  examination;  at  the  same  time  informing  that 
magistrate  that  he  had  heard  there  was  to  be  a  riot  the  next  day, 
and  exhorting  him,  with  the  other  magistrates,  to  join  in  keeping 
the  peace.  The  next  day,  the  ist  of  November,  the  magistrates 
sent  word  to  Colden  that  they  themselves  feared  a  mob  that 
night,  and  their  fears  were  thoroughly  realized.  About  six 
o'clock  every  gamin  in  town,  with  many  privateers  and  dis- 

^  IbU.,  II,  460. 


A  Colonial  Executive  321 

banded  soldiers  and  the  riffraff  of   the   population  generally, 
assembled  under  the  direction  of  some  leaders  of  a  better  class, 
and  divided  themselves  into  two  parties.    Of  these  one  went  to 
the  "Fields,"  where  on  two  gibbets  they  suspended  two  effigies, 
one  of  the  governor,  with  a  drum  on  his  back  and  a  label  on  his 
chest,  and  holding  a  stamped  paper  in  his  hand,  and  one  of  the 
devil.     The  other  party  also  had  a  representation  of  the  governor 
which  they  placed  in  his  chariot.     This  they  dragged  around 
the  town  by  torchlight  until,  after  being  joined  by  the  other 
party,  they  proceeded  to  the  Fort,     Here,  saluting  the  effigies 
with  wild  shouts  and  jeers,  they  battered  down  the  gate  and 
emptied  the  coach-house.      But  the  soldiers  were  looking  on 
quietly  from  the  ramparts,  many  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  town 
had  gathered  in  the  background,  and  a  stranger  could  have 
thought  it  was  some  popular  spectacle  that  was  being  enacted. 
Finally,  the  mob  turned  toward  BowUng  Green.     Here  they 
tore  down  the  palisades,  and,  making  a  bonfire  of  these,  with 
Golden 's  chariot,  his  two  sleighs,  and  his  sedan  chair,  they 
burned  the  effigies  of  the  lieutenant-governor  and  his  evil  com- 
panion.    The  major  part  of  the  crowd  would  now  perhaps 
have  turned  home  satisfied,  but  the  blood  of  the  leaders  was  up, 
and  within  an  hour  the  mob  had  destroyed  one  of  the  finest 
houses  in  town,  the  house  which  Major  James  had  just  remodelled 
for  his  own  use  and  filled  with  books,  pictures,  and  objects  of 
art  such  as  few  colonial  homes  could  boast;   while  his  beauti- 
fully laid-out  garden,  with  the  summer  houses  in  which  his 
wife  had  planned  to  take  so  much  pleasure,  was  reduced  to  a 
dust  heap. 

The  next  day  an  unpleasant-looking  crowd  filled  the  streets, 
and  rumours  of  every  description  the  air.  People  said  the  Fort 
would  be  stormed  that  night,  that  the  mob  had  said  they  would 
kill  every  one  in  it,  while  letters  and  messages  brought  Golden 
the  agreeable  news  that  he  was  going  to  be  hanged.     Now  and 


322  Cadwallader  Colden 

again  prominent  townsmen  came  to  the  Fort  with  various 
schemes  for  the  solution  of  the  difficuhy,  and  toward  evening 
a  party  of  these  proposed  that  the  Ueutenant-governor  give  his 
word  to  make  no  effort  to  distribute  the  stamps,  but  to  leave  them 
where  they  were  until  some  decision  should  be  reached  as  to 
their  further  disposal.  This  request  Colden  considered  but 
another  step  in  the  plot.  His  interlocutors  knew  perfectly 
well,  as  he  said  later,  that  he  could  not  have  found  a  single  man 
willing  to  receive  a  single  stamp;  so  that  for  him  to  execute 
the  function  of  distribution  was  clearly  an  impossibility.  Yet, 
if  he  answered  them  in  the  affirmative,  he,  even  he,  was  liable 
to  rebuke  from  that  government  which  in  its  days  of  greatest 
laxity  could  never  be  depended  on  to  demand  only  the  possible 
from  its  servants.  Nevertheless,  he  had  observed  the  temper 
of  the  mob,  and  he  took  what  seemed  the  lesser  risk.  The  word 
was  passed  out  into  the  rapidly  darkening  streets  that  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor would  leave  the  stamps  alone;  gradually 
the  mob  slunk  away,  and  quietness  settled  down  on  the 
town.  But  two  days  later  the  mob  raised  a  new  demand. 
They  wanted  the  stamps  put  on  one  of  the  British  ships  in  the 
harbour,  and,  though  such  a  demand  seemed  quite  unreasonable, 
Colden  communicated  it  to  Captain  Kennedy.  Kennedy  said 
the  idea  was  impracticable,  that  the  season  of  the  year  would  soon 
oblige  the  ships  to  tie  up  at  the  wharves,  and  that  the  stamps 
were  far  safer  where  they  were.  Then  again  the  crowd  filled 
the  streets  and  the  threats  of  the  preceding  days  were  renewed. 
Colden,  who  reflected  with  pride  that  with  nearly  a  hundred 
soldiers  on  hand  on  the  ist  of  November,  he  had  not  given  a 
single  order  for  resistance,  though  one  round  of  shot  might 
have  subdued  the  people,  now  felt  that  the  policy  of  non- 
resistance  had  been  given  a  fair  trial.  He  therefore  ordered  all 
the  guns  of  the  town  that  commanded  the  Fort  spiked,  and, 
all  the  officers  in  the  neighbourhood  having  gradually  joined  the 


A  Colonial  Executive  323 

garrison,  prepared  to  defend  his  position  with  energy.  His 
action  was  perceived  with  the  most  venomous  criticism,  and  an 
absurd  libel  that  opportunely  left  the  press  that  very  day  was 
received  with  happy  creduHty.^ 

It  will  perhaps  be  remembered  that  when  Golden,  as  a  young 
Philadelphia  physician,  had  returned  to  Scotland  on  a  visit, 
he  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  famous  uprising  known  as 
"  the  '15. "  He  had  made  the  journey  down  from  London  in  the 
company  of  an  old  friend.  Lord  Jedburgh,  afterward  Marquis 
of  Lothian.  They  found  themselves  in  perfect  agreement  on 
the  part  their  country  should  play,  and  some  weeks  later,  when 
Golden  was  sitting  one  Sunday  in  his  father's  little  church,  a 
note  from  Jedburgh  was  handed  him  telling  of  the  arrival  of  a 
body  of  Highlanders  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  asking  him  to 
raise  a  company  to  oppose  them.  Golden  soon  brought  to- 
gether seventy  or  eighty  men,  the  largest  number  recruited  by 
any  one  man  that  day,  and  took  them  to  meet  Jedburgh  at  Kelso, 
where  they  did  good  service  until  the  order  for  retreat  was  given. 
How  these  facts  had  furnished  the  basis  for  a  charge  that  Golden 
had  fought  against  his  king,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Yet  Gov- 
ernor Gosby  had  proposed  to  make  such  a  charge  part  of  a  gen- 
eral indictment  with  a  view  to  the  surveyor  general's  enforced 
retirement  from  office.  Moreover,  when  Horsmanden,  who 
had  been  a  guest  at  Golden 's  home  for  weeks  at  a  time,  and  had 
heard  this  story  among  other  family  traditions,  fell  out  with  the 
Glinton  administration,  he  wrote  an  article  in  a  party  paper, 
calling  Golden  the  "Rebel  Drummer."  Naturally,  to  him  Gol- 
den ascribed  the  revival  of  the  canard  at  this  time.  Naturally, 
also,  he  felt  that  the  man  had  a  fair  record  whose  enemies  were 

^  Copy  of  a  paper  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  indorsed:  "A  Narrative 
of  some  facts  relative  to  Mr.  Colden  occasioned  by  a  Libell  Printed  in  New  York, 
Nov.  4,  1765,  which  it  is  believed  the  Printer  was  really  compelled  by  force  to 
Print."     Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  63. 


324  Cadwallader  C olden 

obliged  to  seek  material  for  their  pamphlets  and  catchwords 
for  their  followers  in  a  long  disproved  incident  fifty  years  old. 
Meanwhile,  the  merchants  and  magistrates  had  continued 
their  efforts  to  bring  about  an  agreement,  which  meant,  being 
interpreted,  that  the  mob  should  get  whatever  they  might 
decide  to  ask.  This,  it  seemed,  was  nothing  less  than  the  stamps 
themselves,  and  on  the  morning  of  November  5th,  representa- 
tives of  the  common  council  came  to  the  lieutenant-governor 
and  asked  him  out  of  mere  compassion  to  propitiate  and  quiet 
the  mob  by  giving  the  packages  into  the  custody  of  the 
mayor  and  his  associates.  Golden  said  that  he  would  seek 
the  advice  of  the  council  before  replying.  But  to  the  council  he 
said  that  if  the  magistrates  could  enforce  quiet  alone,  they  could 
enforce  it  much  more  with  his  assistance,  and  he  suggested  that 
such  evident  submission  to  a  mob's  caprice  would  only  bring 
increased  demands.  The  council  took  a  different  view.  It 
would  be  impossible,  they  maintained,  for  the  mob  to  take  the 
Fort.  Yet  there  was  danger  of  their  attacking  it,  and  if  so,  the 
loss  of  hfe  involved  in  its  necessary  defence  would  be  great. 
They  therefore  advised  him  to  yield.  But  though  Golden  often 
said  that  he  would  have  been  glad  to  shift  the  charge  of  the 
stamps  in  the  beginning,  when  by  so  doing  he  would  have  been 
accounted  mad,  he  hated  to  succumb  to  intimidation.  When, 
however,  General  Gage,  to  whom  he  next  applied,  seconded 
the  advice  of  the  council,  he  felt  no  longer  justified  in  refusing. 
After  making  a  statement  of  his  position,  he  delivered  up  the 
packages  on  the  mayor's  receipt;  the  stamps  were  placed  in 
the  Gity  Hall,  under  a  small  guard;  and  the  mob  quietly  and 
finally  withdrew.  The  popular  notion  of  the  provincial,  as 
opposed  to  the  city,  government  could  not  be  more  forcibly 
illustrated.  The  provincial  government  was  a  foe  because  it 
considered  itself  bound  to  execute  the  laws;  the  city  govern- 
ment was  a  friend  because  it  saw  no  such  necessity. 


A  Colonial  Executive  325 

Eight  days  later  Sir  Henry  Moore  arrived,  and  Golden, 
turning  over  his  residence  as  v^ell  as  his  command  with  mihtary 
promptness,  retired  to  the  house  of  his  grandson,  Stephen  De- 
lancey,  where  he  remained  until  the  i8th  of  November,  fre- 
quently going  about  the  town  and  meeting  with  no  discourtesy. 
Then,  escorted  to  the  ferry  by  a  number  of  personal  friends, 
he  retired  to  Spring  Hill,  his  home  at  Flushing.  Here  he  settled 
down  once  more  with  his  books  about  him,  his  quiet  Hfe  inter- 
rupted once  a  week  by  a  dinner  at  Jamaica  with  old  associates 
from  town.  At  these  dinners  poUtics  were  tabooed ;  but  Golden 
had  not  himself  bidden  them  good-by,  and  on  the  13th  of  De- 
cember he  sent  a  "State  of  the  Province  of  New  York"  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  and  Board  of  Trade.^  In  this  interesting 
study,  dividing  the  population  into  four  classes, —  the  great  land- 
owners, the  lawyers,  the  merchants,  and  the  farmers,  —  he 
discusses  their  relation  to  each  other,  to  the  provincial  govern- 
ment, and  to  Great  Britain  itself,  illustrating  his  conclusions 
from  the  controversies  of  his  own  administration,  and  supplying 
data  for  an  impartial  judgment  of  the  non-importation  agree- 
ment of  the  Stamp  Act  Gongress.  His  suggestions,  offered  in 
another  letter,  were  an  Enghsh  attorney  and  solicitor  general 
and  judges  from  England  also,  with  one  complete  regiment  to 
maintain  law  and  order.  In  this  way,  he  thought,  the  govern- 
ment might  ride  the  crisis  he  now  beHeved  at  its  height. 

It  is  interesting  that  the  man  who  is  held  responsible  for  the 
Stamp  Act,  the  man  who  at  this  time  was  at  the  head  of  the 
British  government,  held  much  the  same  point  of  view.  In- 
deed, between  Golden  and  Grenville  there  are  many  parallels. 
The  same  lack  of  imagination,  the  same  disregard  of  expediency, 
the  same  fearlessness,  the  same  belief  in  the  prevalence  of  a 
governmental  ideal  under  any  conditions,  characterized  them 
both.  But  Golden  had  broader  sympathies,  a  wider  culture,  a 
1  Golden  Letter  Books,  II,  68-78. 


326  Cadwallader  C olden 

more  developed  civic  sense,  and,  where  his  prejudices  did  not 
operate  too  strongly,  a  more  progressive  standpoint  than  had 
Grenville.  It  is  true,  he  read  the  revolutionary  tendency  in 
America  as  the  manifestation  of  the  spirit  of  anarchy,  of  revolt 
against  justified  authority,  roused  in  willing  minds  by  self- 
interested  demagogues.  But  there  was  much  to  justify  this 
view  in  that  province  where  the  colonies  had  first  felt  a  common 
interest,  and  the  beginnings  of  union  had  been  laid.  How  unfit 
for  understanding  a  frugal,  honest,  reUgious  people  were  the 
bribe-taking,  hard-drinking,  card-playing  rakes  in  Parhament 
has  been  shown.  But  piety,  honesty,  and  industry  had  not  been 
conspicuous  attributes  of  New  York's  leaders  from  Judge  Morris 
on,  nor  were  they  more  characteristic  of  the  earlier  champions 
of  liberty.  Their  escapades  had  often  only  been  restricted  by 
meagreness  of  opportunity,  and  up  to  this  period  the  presence 
of  men  of  proved  integrity  in  party  councils  was  rare  enough  to 
be  noteworthy.  Golden  had  long  been  wise  enough  to  foresee 
the  Revolution ;  he  had,  perhaps,  been  wise  enough  to  select 
some  of  the  remedies  that  would  have  prevented  it;  and  it 
would  have  taken  a  far  wiser  man  than  he  to  have  predicted 
the  quahty  of  its  success  from  its  beginnings  as  he  saw  them. 

Meanwhile,  Sir  Henry  Moore  had  been  cultivating  popularity. 
The  improvements  Major  James  had  introduced  into  the  Fort 
were  removed,  the  stamps  were  left  where  they  were,  and,  show- 
ing himself  about  town  in  a  homespun  coat,  the  badge  of  the 
Sons  of  Liberty,  the  new  governor  went  in  person  to  the  coffee- 
house which  was  their  headquarters,  to  publish  anything  he 
thought  might  be  of  interest  to  them.  Naturally,  under  the 
circumstances,  he  failed  to  show  even  formal  courtesy  to  his 
predecessor,  while  in  his  first  speech  to  the  assembly  he  never 
mentioned  the  Stamp  Act,  though  he  earnestly  requested  aid 
for  the  sufferers  from  a  fire  at  Montreal.  Nor  did  he  interfere 
in  any  degree  with  the  business  of  the  following  session,  which, 


A  Colonial  Executive  327 

despite  the  fact  that  some  of  the  members  were  supposed  to  be 
in  active  sympathy  with  the  rioters,  was  conservative  in  tone. 
The  committee  appointed  the  year  before  to  correspond  with 
the  other  colonies  having  made  itself  responsible  for  the  part 
New  York  had  taken  in  the  Stamp  Act  Congress,  the  assembly 
hastened  to  approve  its  action,  and  then,  having  dismissed  it 
with  thanks,  appointed  another  to  address  king  and  Parlia- 
ment in  petitions  adapted  to  the  colony's  special  needs,  but  re- 
sembling the  congressional  petitions  as  closely  as  possible. 
Indeed,  the  members  were  too  conservative  to  please  some  out- 
side, and  an  anonymous  letter  signed  "Freedom,"  and  pur- 
porting to  be  from  a  man  of  the  people  and  a  Son  of  Liberty,  was 
voted  by  the  representatives  it  criticised  to  be  "Libelous,  Scanda- 
lous and  Seditious."  They  also  offered  a  reward  for  the  dis- 
covery of  its  author.  Yet  on  one  point  they  must  have  beheved 
him  to  be  right-minded,  for,  while  he  had  only  suggested  that 
they  deduct  enough  from  the  Heutenant-governor's  salary  to 
"Repair  the  fort  and  on  Spike  the  Guns  on  the  Battery,"  they 
went  so  far  as  to  ignore  the  fact  that  it  was  due,  and  displayed 
a  sustained  and  ever  increasing  bitterness  toward  their  former 
chief.  ^ 

On  November  28th  it  was  ordered  that  the  great  committee 
for  courts  of  justice,  which  was  in  fact  the  committee  of  the 
whole,  should  consider  the  illegal  attempt  which  had  been 
made  during  the  recess  "to  deprive  the  Inhabitants  of  this  Col- 
ony of  their  ancient  and  undoubted  Right  of  Trial  by  Peers,"  ^ 
and  on  December  14th  the  committee  reported.  The  Supreme 
Court  justices  had  informed  the  governor  and  council  on  No- 
vember 1 2th  that  they  could  not  send  up  the  records  unless  in 
a  case  of  error,  but  the  committee  even  opposed  appeals  of  that 
sort,  because,  forsooth,  the  House  of  Lords  was  the  highest 
court  in  England  for  such  appeals,  and  for  an  American  to  be 

1  Journal  of  the  Genl.  Ass.  of  N.  Y.,  II,  786.  2  jj^-j^  ^g^ 


328  Cadwallader  Colden 

obliged  to  turn  to  the  Privy  Council  was  unjust  discrimination. 
Their  report,  however,  was  devoted  exclusively  to  appeals  from 
the  verdict.  They  were  illegal,  they  violated  the  rights  of  the 
subject,  they  would  prevent  justice,  they  promised  the  ultimate 
ruin  of  the  colony.  It,  moreover,  appeared  to  the  house  that 
Cadwallader  Colden  had  done  his  utmost  to  give  success  to 
this  dangerous  innovation,  and  had  filled  the  mind  of  his 
Majesty's  subjects  of  New  York  with  jealousy  and  distrust. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  coun- 
cil, and  Cunningham's  lawyers  had  done  well,  and  merited  the 
approval  of  all  lovers  of  their  country.  Colden  thought  pubUc 
censure  of  this  sort  deserved  a  detailed  reply,  and  began  at  once 
an  account  of  the  principal  controversies  of  his  administration. 
Before  he  had  finished  it,  however,  in  February,  1766,  he  was 
startled  by  receiving  a  letter  from  Mr.  Secretary  Conway.^ 
Conway  had  been  one  of  the  English  opponents  of  the  Stamp 
Act.  Nevertheless,  he  now  expressed  the  disapproval  of  both 
the  king  and  his  servants,  because  Colden  had,  on  the  2d  of 
November,  1765,  promised  to  do  nothing  further  until  the 
arrival  of  Sir  Henry  Moore.  Why  he  should  have  said  this  on 
Tuesday,  when  he  had  said  on  Saturday  that  he  would  do 
everything  in  his  power  to  execute  the  law,  was  a  puzzling  in- 
consistency that  they  could  not  but  condemn.  A  month  later 
Colden  was  still  more  astounded  by  the  information  that  Archi- 
bald Kennedy  had  been  superseded  in  his  office  by  the  king's 
order,  because  of  his  conduct  concerning  the  stam.ps  as  revealed 
in  Colden 's  letters.  Once  again,  could  imbeciUty  further  go? 
To  blame  an  old  and  devoted  servant  of  the  crown,  who  had 
dared  the  utmost  unpopularity  by  his  persistent  loyalty,  merely 
because  he  had,  on  the  advice  of  his  council,  promised  not  to 
do  what  he  could  not  have  done  in  regard  to  certain  stamps, 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  94-96.       Copy  of  Mr.  Secretary  Conway's  letter 
to  Lieutenant-Governor  Colden. 


A  Colonial  Executive  329 

about  which  he  had  not  received  a  single  order,  was  outrageous 
enough.  To  blame  another  because  he  had  refused  to  take 
these  stamps,  knowing  that  if  he  did,  he  would  probably  be 
forced  to  surrender  them,  was  more  than  outrageous.  Besides, 
when  Kennedy  refused  to  take  the  stamps  on  his  Majesty's 
ships,  he  not  only  knew  that  when  the  vessels  were  put  up  for  the 
winter  the  stamps  would  become  an  easy  prey,  but  he  knew  that 
in  the  meanwhile  his  wife's  property  and  his,  which  consisted 
of  large  holdings  of  improved  real  estate,  would  not  be  worth  a 
straw  if  he  yielded.  His  duty  certainly  had  not  seemed  to 
demand  such  a  sacrifice ;  but  England  evidently  had  no  incUna- 
tion  to  master  the  circumstances,  and  it  was  not  strange  that 
her  censure  struck  in  the  wrong  place. 

Her  rebukes  were  the  more  extraordinary  because  of  her 
own  conduct;  for  as  summer  approached  pubhc  and  private 
reports  of  the  doings  of  that  session  of  Parliament  brought  the 
news  that  the  colonies,  apparently,  had  won.  The  Stamp 
Act  was  repealed,  and  New  York  was  soon  rejoicing  as  enthusi- 
astically as  she  had  protested.  The  reaction  of  the  strain  of 
the  past  months  was  complete.  Expressions,  material  and 
verbal,  of  gratitude  to  ParHament,  of  devotion  to  king  and  coun- 
try, of  kinship  with  all  true  Britons  everywhere,  abounded, 
and,  like  the  rest.  New  York  was  too  excited  to  observe  that 
other  act  of  Parliament  in  which  the  full  right  to  tax  the  colonies 
in  all  ways  whatsoever  had  been  asserted.  To  Colden  the 
whole  thing  seemed  preposterous,  and  it  required  all  his  accu- 
mulated reverence  for  authority  to  assume  a  wisdom  he  could 
not  see  in  the  government's  action.  To  be  intimidated  into 
the  repeal  of  an  act  before  attempting  its  enforcement,  and  while 
reiterating  its  propriety,  was  to  him  incomprehensible,  and 
promised  increased  difficulties  in  the  future. 

It  is  now  conceded  by  historians  generally  that  there  was 
nothing  illegal  about  the  famous  bill,  that  ParUament  had  a 


33©  Cadwallader  Colden 

perfect  right  to  pass  it,  and  that  the  distinction  made  between 
external  and  internal  taxation  was  superfine.  It  is,  none  the 
less,  considered  a  measure  so  blundering,  unstatesmanlike, 
and  inexpedient  that  it  was  quite  as  unjustifiable  as  if  it  had 
transgressed  the  law.  But,  as  has  perhaps  been  sufficiently 
pointed  out,  frequent  blunders  marked  England's  colonial 
policy.  Had  the  government  long  before  taken  Colden's  ad- 
vice and  estabHshed  a  highly  centralized  colonial  bureaucracy, 
strong  enough  and  independent  enough  to  enforce  its  com- 
mands, or  had  it  decided  to  allow  a  system  of  self-government, 
exacting  merely  a  sort  of  general  allegiance,  in  either  case 
issues  would  have  been  defined,  and  people  would  have  known 
where  they  stood.  It  is  true  that  George  III  and  some  of  his 
ministers  would  have  been  quite  capable  of  upsetting  any  and 
all  existing  regulations,  but  the  breach  would  have  been  obvious, 
it  would  have  stirred  a  clear-eyed  and  authoritative  opposi- 
tion appealing  to  the  best  elements  in  all  the  provinces;  it 
would,  in  short,  have  been  met  as  like  transgressions  were  met 
at  home. 

Besides  his  general  disapproval  of  the  repeal,  Colden  must 
have  noted  that,  while  he  had  been  blamed  for  refusing  to  oppose 
his  own  advisers  and  a  mob  combined,  the  whole  government, 
king,  ministry,  and  Parliament,  had  capitulated  three  thou- 
sand miles  away.  But  if  he  thought  this  unfair,  he  did  not  say 
so,  and  quietly  turned  his  attention  to  obtaining  some  financial 
redress.  Parliament  had  passed  resolutions  to  be  sent  to  the 
colonial  governors,  directing  them  to  require  their  assemblies 
to  compensate  all  oflScers  of  government  for  their  losses  in  the 
late  riots.  Colden,  placing  his  own  losses,  ascertained  on 
oath,  at  ;^i95  35.,  and  to  these  adding  the  ;^4oo  of  salary 
due  him  for  the  last  two  months  of  his  administration,  sent 
the  account  to  both  governor  and  assembly,  asking  Moore 
to  put  some  special  emphasis  on  his  case.    Moore  did  noth- 


A  Colonial  Executive  331 

ing  of  the  kind,  however,  and  while  Major  James,  who  had 
so  infuriated  the  inhabitants  by  bringing  the  howitzers  into 
the  Fort,  received  his  damages  by  a  majority  of  one  vote,  and 
all  other  applicants  received  theirs,  Colden's  plea  was  passed 
over  in  silence.  Hopeless  of  redress  in  America,  the  aged 
lieutenant-governor  then  asked  a  pension,  reminding  the  min- 
istry that  it  could  not  be  for  long.  With  his  appUcation  he  en- 
closed a  proclamation  of  Sir  Henry's,  offering  a  reward  for  the 
apprehension  of  seven  men  guilty  of  high  treason.  These  men, 
Colden  explained,  were  tenants  and  farmers  who,  rendered 
desperate  by  the  oppression  of  interminable  lawsuits,  had 
taken  advantage  of  the  general  excitement,  broken  open  a  jail, 
and  threatened  the  persons  and  effects  of  some  of  the  great 
landowners.  Whereupon  Sir  Henry  had  issued  his  proclamation, 
and  the  Twenty-eighth  Regiment  had  been  sent  to  quiet  the  little 
rebellion.  Far  from  justifying  it,  Colden  simply  called  atten- 
tion to  the  method  of  its  treatment,  as  contrasted  with  that  in 
use  in  a  certain  late  event.  Yet  November,  1766,  came  with 
the  first  anniversary  of  the  famous  riot,  and  Colden  had  not 
received  a  penny  or  a  word  of  commendation  for  his  devotion 
to  the  government.  Surely,  as  he  said,  here  was  little  encour- 
agement to  loyalty.  He  knew  that  it  had  been  asked  in  Parlia- 
ment if  he  were  not  generally  dishked,  a  question  that  caused 
him  much  bitterness;  and  he  knew  that  many  defamatory 
papers  had  been  sent  to  England.  Therefore,  in  the  hope  of 
leaving  an  unsullied  reputation  to  his  children,  he  at  length 
sent  his  completed  vindication  to  his  old  friend  Colhnson,  with 
full  directions  for  its  distribution.  A  hundred  and  twenty 
copies  were  to  be  printed,  and  of  these  twenty  were  to  be  sent  to 
Colden,  and  a  hundred  were  to  be  given  to  members  of  Parlia- 
ment and  other  officials  named  in  an  enclosed  Ust. 

In  December  the  assembly  met  again,  and  Colden  was  sur- 
prised by  receiving  a  letter  from  the  speaker  asking  him  why 


332  Cadwallader  Colden 

he  did  not  send  in  his  accounts.  Colden  replied  with  much 
dignity  that  he  had  thought  the  compensation  to  sufferers  by 
the  riots  was  to  be  a  free  act  of  gratitude  to  ParUament,  and 
that  repeated  appUcation,  making  it  less  voluntary,  would  be 
disagreeable  to  the  house.  His  salary  he  alone  regarded  as  a 
debt.  But  this  the  assembly  again  refused,  because,  they  said, 
the  lieutenant-governor  had  brought  his  losses  on  himself. 
Colden 's  conduct  having  been  what  it  was,  the  connection  in 
sympathy  between  legislators  and  mob  was  evident.  Colden 
wrote  of  their  decision  to  Shelburne,  and  when,  on  May  15, 
1767,  the  House  of  Commons  addressed  the  king,  begging  a 
mark  of  his  royal  favour  for  those  governors  and  officers  who 
had  distinguished  themselves  in  the  service  of  crown  and 
Parliament  in  the  late  disturbances  in  North  America,  every 
one  in  New  York  thought  that  Colden  was  meant.  Yet  a 
third  autumn  came  around  and  still  he  had  heard  nothing. 

But  it  was  only  his  good  fortune  that  lagged.  Despite  all 
his  care,  his  vindication,  consisting  in  the  main  of  a  narrative 
of  facts  susceptible  of  proof  by  the  records,  had  been  reprinted 
in  New  York,  and  had  caused  as  much  indignation,  as  if  self- 
defence  was  a  despotic  act.  The  copy,  it  was  said,  had  been 
furnished  the  printer  by  a  son  of  one  of  the  judges.  However 
this  might  have  been,  shortly  after  its  publication  the  Supreme 
Court  met,  and  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  sitting,  as  the  jurors 
were  walking  up  to  the  City  Hall  expecting  to  be  discharged. 
Judge  Livingston  met  them  and  asked  if  they  were  going  to 
present  the  vindication.  According  to  current  gossip  they  had 
repeatedly  been  urged  to  do  this  during  the  session,  but  had 
always  refused.  They  now  refused  again,  and  though  Living- 
ston told  them  they  would  not  be  discharged  until  they  yielded, 
they  repeated  their  refusal  in  court.  But  when  Judge  Living- 
ston handed  them  a  copy,  and  Chief  Justice  Horsmanden 
charged  them  to  present  it,  they  did  so  in  his  own  words,  stig- 


A  Colonial  Executive 


333 


matizing  it  as  "a  very  vile,  infamous,  false  and  libellous  Reflec- 
tion on  his  Majesty's  Council,  Assembly,  Courts  of  Justice 
and  the  whole  body  of  the  Law  in  this  Province."  ^ 

In  all  this  Colden  saw  some  faint  ground  for  encouragement. 
There  seemed  little  doubt  that  the  smuggler  was  flourishing  in 
the  land  as  he  had  not  flourished  in  years.  He  was  smugghng, 
too,  in  the  grand  manner,  and  his  manipulation  of  whole  cargoes 
from  Holland,  and  ship-loads  of  wine,  would  have  made  the  old 
hands  stare.  The  merchant  thus  had  as  much  reason  as  the 
big  landlord  to  fear  the  law,  and  for  a  grand  jury  composed 
largely  of  merchants  to  oppose  its  leading  exponents  for  so  long 
a  time,  proved  to  Colden  their  possession  of  strongly  conflicting 
opinions,  and  he  felt  less  disheartened  than  he  might  otherwise 
have  done.  There  was  more  to  follow,  however.  On  November 
17th  the  assembly  met,  and  on  the  2 2d  of  December  Mr. 
Livingston,  having  read  certain  passages  in  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"The  Conduct  of  Cadwallader  Colden,  Esquire,  Late  Lieuten- 
tant  Governor  of  New  York,  relating  to  the  Judges  Commis- 
sions, Appeals  to  the  King  and  the  Stamp  Duty,"  ^  commented 
vigorously  thereon,  and  then  moved  that  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  examine  the  contents  of  the  publication  and  discover 
its  author  and  publisher.  The  motion  was  carried,  and  Liv- 
ingston was  empowered  to  carry  a  message  to  the  council  for 
the  appointment  of  a  joint  committee  of  investigation.  Mr. 
Smith,  Mr.  Roger  Morris,  and  Mr.  Watts  were  accordingly 
added  to  the  assembly's  appointees,  and  one  week  later  a  report 
was  presented.  This  not  only  reaffirmed  Livingston's  censures, 
but  submitted  many  more,  and  according  to  it  the  pamphlet 
contained  "the  most  malignant  aspersions  upon  the  inhabitants 
of  this  colony  in  general,"  and  tended  "to  destroy  the  Confi- 
dence of  the  people  in  two  branches  of  the  legislature  and  in 
the  officers  concerned  in  the  due  administration  of  justice ;  to 

'  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  131 -142,  146-150.  '  Ibid.,  II,  429. 


334  Cadwallader  Colden 

render  the  government  odious  and  contemptible ;  to  abate  that 
due  respect  to  authority,  which  was  so  necessary  to  peace  and 
good  order ;  to  excite  disadvantageous  suspicions  and  jealousies 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  against  his  Majesty's 
subjects  in  this  colony ;  and  to  expose  the  colony  in  general  to 
the  resentments  of  the  Crown  and  both  houses  of  parUament." 
Counter- vindication,  accordingly,  seemed  imperative,  and  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  refute  the  charges  of  the  pamphlet, 
to  discover  its  author  and  pubUsher,  and  to  suggest  the  nature 
of  their  punishment.  On  the  14th  of  January,  1768,  this  com- 
mittee summoned  and  examined  Colden 's  son,  having  examined 
his  son-in-law  and  others  before;  and  the  day  after  its  leading 
spirit,  Mr.  Livingston,  left  town  and  was  seen  no  more  during 
that  session.  But  the  report  of  the  joint  committee  was  pub- 
lished the  day  before  the  January  session  of  the  Supreme  Court; 
and  on  the  last  day  of  the  assembly's  session,  when  but  a  bare 
quorum  was  present,  a  series  of  resolves  were  presented  and 
passed  which  embodied  the  charges  contained  therein. 

Colden 's  position  would  have  been  hard  enough  had  he  been 
twenty  years  younger.  Three  years  before,  he,  the  heutenant- 
governor,  had  been  set  up  in  the  pubUc  prints  as  a  target  at 
which  he  who  pleased  might  aim.  "These  pretended  patriots 
of  liberty,"  he  had  said,  "have  boldly  asserted  things  well  known 
in  this  place  to  be  false,  pubhshed  them  here,  &  made  use  of 
their  being  published  in  this  place  as  an  argument  of  their 
truth."  Yet  his  first  attempt  at  retaliation,  or  rather,  for  it 
was  scarcely  that,  of  simple  self -justification,  was  charged  by 
the  grand  jury  of  the  province  with  being  a  vile  libel.  When  it 
is  remembered,  however,  that  the  government,  for  which  mis- 
takenly or  not  he  had  risked  all,  had  now  let  considerably  more 
than  two  years  pass  without  adding  a  word  to  Conway's  letter 
and  that  this  fact  was  known  to  every  man  in  the  province; 
that  William  Smith,  that  "patriotic  Billy,"  who  was  recognized 


A  Colonial  Executive 


335 


as  a  leader  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  had  since  been  made  a  member 
of  council ;  and  that  Oliver  Delancey  who,  though  he  liked  the 
Independents  Uttle,  Uked  Colden  less,  was  at  that  very  moment 
popularly  supposed  to  be  telling  tales  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton, 
to  whom  he  had  access  through  a  cousin  married  to  Colonel 
Fitzroy,  it  is  not  hard  to  understand  why  Colden  was  accorded 
such  scant  respect.  But  it  is  hard  to  understand  the  mental 
processes  of  such  a  government.  As  Colden  wrote  to  Mansfield :  ^ 
"I  make  no  doubt  your  Lordships  Compassion  would  be  moved 
in  the  case  of  any  private  person  under  such  mahcious  undeserved 
persecution  but  my  Lord  when  the  case  is  of  a  virulent 
Faction  against  their  Governor  for  performing  his  Duty  in  sup- 
porting the  Authority  of  the  ParUament  &  the  Dependence 
of  the  Colony  of  Great  Britain,  a  neglect  of  Protection  must 
be  of  most  dangerous  example  &  deter  every  officer  of  the  Crown 
from  his  duty.  In  truth  this  has  in  a  great  measure  been  already 
the  Case.  Even  private  men  think  it  imprudent  to  speak  their 
Sentiments  whereas  had  they  who  think  they  owe  obedience  to 
the  parliament  of  Gr  Britain  been  properly  supported  the 
opposition  had  been  silenced  before  this  time.  Whatever 
the  wisdom  of  the  Ministry  may  suggest  to  be  the  true 
policy  of  Great  Britain  with  respect  to  her  Colonies  they  never 
can  think  it  good  policy  to  dehver  up  their  faithfull  servants 
supposing  they  may  have  erred  in  Judgment  to  the  violent 
resentment  of  a  virulent  Faction  who  stood  in  opposition  to  the 
Authority  of  Parliament." 

yii 

Colden  undoubtedly  deplored  such  idiotic  procedure,  for  the 
sake  of  the  government  even  more  than  for  his  own,  but  it 
could  have  been,  indeed  was,  no  easy  thing  for  a  man  of  nearly 

*  Letter  Books,  II,  156. 


336  Cadwallader  Colden 

eighty  to  find  himself  acknowledged  nowhere.  There  seemed, 
however,  to  be  some  slight  indications  of  a  reaction  in  popular 
feeling.  The  pamphlet  was  plainly  the  production  of  a  man  of 
strongly  conservative,  but  not  bigoted,  opinions,  and  it  was 
favourably  received  by  many.  It  was  eagerly  bought  and  widely 
read,  and  the  observing  soon  detected  a  shght  change  in  the 
tone  of  coflfee-house  conversations.  "Why  was  not  the  Ueu- 
tentant-governor  summoned  to  council  meetings?"  people 
began  to  ask,  and  when  they  heard  it  was  because  he  might  be 
mobbed,  there  were  many  who  retorted  that  he  would  run  no 
such  risk  unless  the  council  itself  wished  it.  But  a  more  con- 
vincing proof  of  reaction  was  to  be  found  in  the  elections.  The 
old  assembly  having  expired  by  the  Septennial  Act,  and  writs 
for  a  new  one  having  been  issued,  the  "Whig  Interest,"  as  it 
now  began  to  be  called,  was  surprisingly  unsuccessful  at  the 
polls.  Two  "republicans"  were  defeated  in  Orange  County, 
one  in  Kings,  and  one  in  Westchester,  where  the  successful 
candidate  was  Colden's  grandson,  while  only  one  of  the  four 
members  for  the  city  kept  his  seat,  a  Presbyterian  lawyer  being 
among  those  retired.  Indeed,  "No  Lawyer  in  the  Assembly," 
became  a  party  slogan.  But,  above  all.  Judge  Livingston  him- 
self, who  desired  to  represent  a  constituency  which  had  returned 
a  member  of  his  family  for  over  forty  years,  saw  early  in  the 
day  that  his  case  was  hopeless  and  withdrew  from  the  contest. 
Livingston's  defeat  had  taken  place  in  Dutchess  County,  and, 
significantly  enough,  another  Livingston  lost  another  seat  in 
the  same  county  at  the  same  election.  Now  was  the  oppor- 
tunity to  bring  a  just  judge  from  abroad,  urged  the  lieutenant- 
governor,  as  eagerly  as  if  his  recommendations  had  ever  been 
regarded:  "I  think  you  will  no  longer  find  it  inconvenient  to 
countenance  me,"  he  said  as  good-naturedly  as  though  he  had 
never  been  culpably  neglected. 
Certain  changes  in  the  ministry,  however,  now  promised 


A  Colonial  Executive  337 

better  things  for  Colden  personally.  The  Earls  of  Halifax 
and  Hillsborough,  after  long  retirement,  were  again  in  the  gov- 
ernment, and  whatever  may  be  said  of  their  statesmanship, 
these  men  in  their  relations  with  America  had  been  marked 
by  an  approachableness,  an  ordinary  humanity  that  distin- 
guished them  from  their  sphinx-hke  colleagues.  If  a  colonial 
asked  a  question  of  either,  Halifax,  because  he  was  business- 
hke,  and  Hillsborough,  possibly  because  he  felt  it  was  one 
thing  he  could  do,  would  actually  answer  it.  Intercourse  with 
them  was  intercourse,  and  not  endless  repetition  of  the  same 
questions  on  the  one  side  and  a  vast  silence  on  the  other.  If 
we  accept  Conway's  letter  of  censure,  written  before  all  the 
facts  of  Colden 's  conduct  in  November,  1765,  were  known,  it 
took  nearly  three  years  to  extract  a  word  from  the  ministry  that 
had  stood  sponsor  for  the  Stamp  Act,  until  Colden  himself  said 
that  a  refusal  of  his  claims  would  be  preferable.  Even  then 
Grenville's  letter  was  perfunctory  in  character;  but  Colden  had 
already  written  his  first  letter  to  Hillsborough,  and  httle  more 
than  two  months  later,  on  the  9th  of  July,  1768,  Hillsborough 
wrote  Sir  Henry  Moore  speaking  of  Colden  in  warm  terms, 
and  directing  him  to  continue  his  efforts  with  the  assembly  in 
his  behalf.  But,  though  Moore  did  as  he  was  told,  he  con- 
sidered himself  under  no  obligations  to  mention  the  reason,  and 
Colden  could  not  flatter  himself  that  official  approval  of  his 
career  was  the  more  patent  to  the  average  provincial.  More- 
over, though  Moore  presented  Colden's  account  to  the  new 
assembly,  of  which  Colden  had  such  high  hopes  at  the  time  of 
their  election,  they  voted  to  give  the  lieutenant-governor  his 
unpaid  salary  only.  Their  reason  for  refusing  to  make  good  his 
losses,  Colden  heard,  were  two.  It  was  said,  almost  in  the  words 
of  "Freedom's"  libellous  letter,  that  as  Colden  had  spiked  the 
cannon  on  the  batteries  and  the  assembly  had  been  obliged  to 
pay  to  unspike  them,  they  considered  that   they  had  already 


338  Cadwallader  Colden 

been  at  sufficient  expense  in  connection  with  the  matter;  and 
it  was  whispered  that  if  he  had  not  said  his  losses  were  due  to  a 
mob,  he  would  have  fared  better.  To  these  arguments  Colden 
rephed  in  turn  that  the  assembly  had  preempted  the  charge  of 
the  batteries  from  the  government,  and  that,  even  so,  the  govern- 
ment would  have  unspiked  them  in  time  had  the  assembly  not 
been  in  such  a  hurry;  while,  as  to  calling  the  rioters  a  mob,  he 
should  have  thought  that  less  objectionable  than  calling  them 
the  gentlemen  of  the  town. 

But  the  assembly  were  too  absorbed  in  their  own  contentions 
to  give  heed  to  their  own  expressions.  If  the  two  parties  knew 
distinctly  what  they  themselves  stood  for,  it  is  not  a  matter  of 
record,  and  the  session  resolved  itself  into  a  struggle  for  leader- 
ship, whose  rigours  brought  about  a  dissolution  early  in  1769. 
His  opponents  said  that  Sir  Henry  dissolved  the  assembly  in 
order  to  give  the  Whigs  a  chance  to  recover  themselves  at  the 
polls.  His  own  reasons,  however,  were  different.  On  the 
2ist  of  November  Moore  had  reported  to  the  assembly  that, 
despite  the  vigilance  of  magistrates,  a  riot  had  taken  place  in 
town  on  the  previous  Monday.  The  house  had  at  once  resolved 
to  pay  the  reward  of  ;^5o  for  the  conviction  of  its  pro- 
moters, which  had  been  offered  by  Moore  on  his  council's 
advice,  and  had  thanked  him  for  the  opportunity  to  express 
their  abhorrence  of  such  methods.  At  the  same  time  they 
could  not  forbear  to  state  that  they  felt,  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  the  colonies,  "the  distresses  occasioned  by  the  new  duties 
imposed  by  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  ill-policed 
state  of  the  American  Commerce."  Moreover,  on  the  31st 
of  December,  roused  by  the  action  of  Parliament  in  suspending 
the  legislatures  which  had  countenanced  the  non-importation 
agreement,  the  house  entered  on  its  minutes  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions affirming  the  rights  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  in  New  York 
and  asserting  that  taxation  without  representation  would  prove 


A  Colonial  Executive  339 

harmful  to  the  British  Empire  as  a  whole,  that  all  the  subjects 
of  Great  Britain  were  equal,  that  the  power  of  the  colonial 
legislatures  could  not  be  abridged,  and  that  the  right  of  petition 
and  correspondence  with  whole  colonies  or  individuals  was 
theirs.  Accordingly,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  corre- 
spond with  the  colonies  and  with  their  Enghsh  agents.  But, 
though  Moore's  affiUations  had  been  with  the  Whig  leaders, 
he  was  not  prepared  to  countenance  anything  so  radical,  and  in 
the  first  week  of  the  new  year  he  addressed  them  on  the  sub- 
ject of  their  resolves.  It  gave  him,  he  said,  much  pain  to  speak 
frankly,  but  he  felt  constrained  to  express  his  amazement  at 
the  opinions  they  had  developed,  some  flatly  repugnant  to  the 
laws  of  Great  Britain,  and  others  clearly  intended  to  give  offence 
where  common  prudence  would  have  avoided  it.  For  this 
reason  he  must  declare  them  dissolved.  At  the  same  time  he 
would  put  the  best  possible  face  on  their  conduct  in  his  letters 
home. 

An  exciting  campaign  followed.  The  Delanceys,  now  looked 
upon  as  leading  the  conservatives,  had  nevertheless  championed 
the  resolutions,  one  of  the  family  indeed  having  proposed  an 
even  more  aggressive  declaration.  On  the  other  hand,  Moore, 
whose  closest  intimates  were  the  Livingstons  with  their  Whig 
procHvities,  had  done  all  he  could  to  quash  them.  Thus  it 
was  difficult  to  place  their  followers.  But  there  was  no  question 
as  to  the  vehemence  of  the  contest.  Through  his  private 
secretary,  Phihp  Livingston,  Jr.,  Moore  did  all  he  could  by 
threats  and  promises  to  put  his  friends  where  they  wished  to  be. 
But  their  opponents  were  too  strong  for  them.  The  older 
Phihp  Livingston,  uncle  of  the  secretary  and  speaker  of  the 
late  assembly,  was  defeated,  and  his  brother,  Peter  Van  Brugh 
Livingston,  as  well.  In  fact,  only  six  or  seven  Whigs  found 
themselves  members,  and  of  these  not  more  than  three  were 
men  of  reputation.    Yet  when  the  assembly  met,  John  Cruger 


340  Cadwallader  Colden 

being  made  speaker,  Moore's  request  for  the  appointment  of 
a  London  agent  by  act  instead  of  by  the  assembly  brought  a 
prompt  refusal  for  reasons  which  they  said  were  improper  to 
be  given  in  an  address.  Both  parties  indeed  now  felt  it  so 
necessary  to  stand  well  with  the  people,  who  had  learned  their 
lesson  for  once  and  for  all,  that  they  could  afford  to  differ  little 
in  their  poUcy. 

The  Whigs,  however,  were  thoroughly  alarmed,  and,  led  by 
the  triumvirate,  bent  every  effort  to  regain  their  lost  prestige. 
To  do  this  they  went  further  than  they  had  ever  gone  before, 
and  all  pretence  of  reluctance  to  separate  from  England  died 
out  of  their  counsels.  They  ventured  to  publish  the  most 
radical  propositions,  and  six  years  before  the  Revolution,  in 
the  new  weekly  which  they  estabUshed  as  their  party  organ, 
offered  their  readers  such  visions  as  the  follovdng:  "This  coun- 
try will  shortly  become  a  great  and  flourishing  empire,  inde- 
pendent of  Great  Britain ;  enjoying  its  civil  and  rehgious  Uberty, 
uncontaminated  and  deserted  of  all  control  from  Bishops,  the 
curse  of  curses,  and  from  the  subjection  of  all  earthly  Kings ;  the 
corner  stones  of  this  government  are  already  laid,  the  materials 
are  preparing,  and  before  six  years  roll  about,  the  great,  the 
noble,  the  stupendous  future  -will  be  erected."  * 

Nevertheless,  the  conservatives  steadily  gained,  and  when,  on 
September  4,  1769,  Sir  Henry  died  after  a  short  illness,  he  be- 
queathed to  his  successor  a  council  which  contained  but  one 
Presbyterian,  and  consequently  radical,  member,  WilHam  Smith, 
Jr.  Once  again  summoned  unexpectedly  to  the  chief  command 
of  the  province,  Colden  could  now  feel  that  the  responsibility 
was  divided  and  that  he  was  not  the  sole  support  of  the  crown. 
This  was  fortunate,  for  he  faced  a  situation  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary difficulty.  In  the  spring  of  1767  Parliament  had  passed  a 
bill  taxing  a  variety  of  articles  on  their  importation  into  the 
^  The  American  Whig,  1769. 


A  Colonial  Executive  341 

colonies,  while  a  year  later  it  was  determined  that  the  regulars, 
sent  over  partly  to  protect,  partly  to  coerce,  should  be  subsisted 
by  the  towns  through  which  they  passed  or  in  which  they  were 
posted.  Clearly  enough,  every  argument  that  had  been  used 
to  prove  the  tyranny  of  the  Stamp  Act  appUed  with  equal  force 
to  the  first  of  these  measures,  and  there  were  bold  spirits  who 
dreamed  straightway  of  an  intercolonial  agreement  by  which 
not  one  of  the  taxable  articles  should  be  received  in  any  colony. 
But  New  York,  though  she  had  her  moments  of  enthusiasm, 
was  something  too  cosmopoHtan,  too  hard-headed,  too  bal- 
anced, dehberately  to  sustain  them.  Whatever  her  demagogues 
might  say  she  had  not  yet  made  up  her  mind  what  to  do,  and  its 
making  depended  on  many  things. 

In  the  first  place,  Golden  soon  learned  that  the  last  assembly 
had  passed  a  bill  providing  for  the  issue  of  ;^i  20,000  in 
bills  of  credit  on  loan ;  that  it  was  most  popular  with  every  one ; 
that  it  had  been  sent  over  in  the  spring  for  the  royal  judgment ; 
and  that  a  similar  measure  would  be  proposed  at  the  coming 
session.  For  this  reason  he  delayed  calling  the  members  in  the 
hope  of  hearing  from  the  ministry.  But  when,  having  waited 
as  long  as  possible,  he  issued  the  summons  and  a  bill  of  the  ex- 
pected nature  was  brought  in,  he  decided,  after  a  careful  exami- 
nation, that  it  was  quite  free  from  objectionable  features.  It 
seemed  to  him  bound  to  increase  the  importation  of  British 
manufactures,  and  while  there  was  no  suspending  clause,  as  the 
instructions  directed  there  should  be,  the  date  fixed  for  its  effect- 
iveness would  accompHsh  the  same  end.  Hence,  when  he  found 
that  there  was  a  strong  feeling  against  suspending  clauses,  and 
that  this  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  bills  with  such  clauses 
were  so  long  in  emerging  from  the  gloom  of  the  Board  of  Trade's 
office,  he  forebore  to  urge  one  and  intimated  that  he  would  pass 
the  bill  as  it  stood. ^    In  doing  this   he  merely  followed  the 

1  Colden  to  Hillsborough,  Letter  Books,  II,  187-189. 


342  Cadwallader  Colden 

precedent  set  by  Sir  Henry,  who  had  passed  the  bill  despite  the 
late  act  of  ParHament  directed  against  colonial  currency,  and  who 
had  at  the  same  time  sent  home  a  strong  representation  of  the 
need  for  such  an  issue.  Colden  had  at  least  the  right  to  hope 
that  this  had  had  some  effect.  His  concession  was  followed  by 
the  passage  of  a  bill  for  provisioning  the  regulars,  by  which 
the  sum  of  ;^iooo  was  voted  from  the  treasury  and  ;^iooo 
from  the  proceeds  of  the  new  bills.  The  assembly  had  not 
been  generous,  but  Colden  in  writing  home  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that,  even  in  England,  the  quartering  of  the  sol- 
diery was  an  unpopular  measure.^  Indeed,  while  he  was  as 
little  disposed  to  consider  the  people  the  source  of  power  as  ever 
he  had  been,  a  certain  degree  of  toleration,  of  regard  for  ex- 
pediency, of  conciliation,  what  you  will,  was  tingeing  his  letters 
and  speeches. 

The  revolutionary  party,  however,  thought  his  poUcy  sus- 
ceptible of  another  explanation.  The  adoption  by  the  house  of 
the  famous  resolutions  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  did 
not  blind  the  watchful  Sons  of  Liberty  to  their  recognition  of  the 
quartering  act.  Two  days  after  the  assembly  had  agreed  to  pass 
the  provisioning  bill,  the  speaker  laid  before  the  house  a  pamphlet 
addressed  "To  the  Betrayed  Inhabitants  of  the  City  and  Colony 
of  New  York."  *  Having  accused  the  assembly  of  indifference 
to  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  the  continent  as  well  as  to  the 
property  of  the  people  of  New  York,  its  author  went  on  to  say 
that  some  baleful  influence  must  be  at  work.  Indeed,  he  af- 
firmed that  the  guilt  and  confusion  of  the  supporters  of  the  bill 
during  the  debate  on  its  passage  proved  this.  The  source  of 
the  influence  was  equally  clear.  Mr.  Colden,  reaUzing  that  the 
ministry  would  expect  him  to  dissolve  the  assembly  if  they  re- 

*  Ibid.,  II,  199-202. 

^  The  text  of  this  pamphlet  is  given  in  the  Appendix  to  the  first  volume 
of  Jones's  History,  p.  426. 


A  Colonial  Executive  343 

fused  to  consider  the  soldiers,  fearing  that  his  children  might 
be  deprived  of  their  offices  if  the  ministry  were  disappointed, 
yet  knowing  that  a  dissolution  would  mean  no  salary  for  him, 
had  flattered  the  members  into  thinking  that  the  currency  bill 
would  be  approved  when  he  knew  that  there  was  no  possibility 
of  such  a  thing.  The  Delanceys,  now  once  more  in  the  ascend- 
ant, were  equally  opposed  to  a  dissolution ;  and  for  this  reason, 
notwithstanding  past  bitternesses,  had  joined  hands  with  Golden. 
Finally,  the  new  coaUtion  had  been  helped  by  the  wishes  of  the 
assemblymen  themselves,  who  naturally  desired  to  stay  where 
they  were  and  not  risk  an  election.  But  the  bill  had  been  passed 
by  a  majority  of  but  one.  There  was  therefore  still  hope  that 
New  York  would  not  be  disgraced  in  the  eyes  of  Boston  and 
Charlestown.  Let  every  reading  patriot,  urged  the  pamphlet, 
meet  in  the  Fields  on  a  certain  day  and  thence  go  in  a  body  to 
their  respective  representatives.  These  were  to  be  ordered  to 
join  the  minority,  and  if  they  refused,  a  committee  was  to  be 
appointed  to  correspond  with  the  colonies,  with  friends  of  the 
cause  in  England,  and  with  the  pubhc  prints. 

This  paper  was  voted.  Colonel  Schuyler  alone  dissenting,  to 
be  "a  false,  seditious  and  infamous  hbel,"  while  it  was  unani- 
mously decided  that  it  was  an  anarchistic  reflection  on  the 
dignity  of  the  assembly,  and  that  the  lieutenant-governor 
should  be  humbly  addressed  to  offer  £100  for  the  discovery 
of  its  sponsors.  But  its  sentiments  were  not  unique.  It  had 
scarcely  been  disposed  of  when  another  paper  signed  "Legion," 
and  calling  another  meeting  in  the  Fields,  "to  avert  the  dis- 
astrous consequences  of  the  late  base  and  inglorious  conduct 
of  the  General  Assembly,"  was  presented  by  Gaptain  Delancey 
and  voted  "an  infamous  libel,"  while  the  author  was  declared 
guilty  of  high  misdemeanour  and  £50  was  offered  for  his 
discovery.  Moreover,  when  it  had  been  found  out  who  it  was 
that  had  endeavoured  to  arouse  his  countrymen  to  their  danger, 


344  Cadwallader  Colden 

the  results  of  his  prosecution  were  on  the  whole  satisfactory. 
It  seemed  that  he  was  a  certain  Alexander  McDougal/  the  son 
of  a  Scotch  milkman,  who  had  started  his  career  by  making  the 
daily  rounds  with  his  father's  cans.  Later,  his  father  and  others 
having  broken  with  the  Presbyterian  meeting  and  set  up  one  of 
their  own,  he  had  acted  as  clerk  while  his  father  was  pastor. 
Later  still,  he  made  several  voyages  before  the  mast,  became 
the  master  first  of  a  small  ship  and  then  of  a  privateer,  and  finally 
married  a  St.  Croix  lady  of  some  wealth  and  set  himself  up  in 
trade  in  New  York.  Despite  his  comfortable  circumstances, 
however,  when  he  was  arrested  on  Horsmanden's  warrant,  he 
refused  to  give  bail  and  at  once  became  the  idol  of  the  town. 
He  was  called  a  second  Wilkes ;  and  borrowing  an  incident  from 
his  prototype,  the  papers  made  the  most  of  the  already  over- 
worked number  forty- five.  It  was  said  that  forty-five  gentlemen 
had  dined  with  him,  forty- five  ladies  breakfasted  with  him,  forty- 
five  tradesmen  supped  with  him,  forty-five  women  taken  tea 
with  him.  He  was  said  to  have  received  forty-five  pounds  of 
beef  from  Thomas  Smith,  forty-five  bottles  of  Madeira  from 
Peter  R.  Livingston,  forty-five  bottles  of  ale  from  Scotch  traders, 
forty- five  pounds  of  candles  from  the  two  Presbyterian  parsons, 
and  so  on.  Finally,  the  repetition  growing  tiresome,  ninety- 
three,  the  number  of  members  of  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court  who  had  refused  to  rescind  a  vote  on  Lord  Hillsborough's 
order,  was  substituted,  and  the  tale  was  told  over  once  more 
with  renewed  zest. 

Meanwhile,  everything  had  been  done  to  induce  the  sheriff 
to  pack  the  coming  grand  jury .2  But  he  was  proof  against  both 
bribes  and  threats  and  selected  twelve  men  highly  satisfactory 
to  the  conservatives.  Then  an  attempt  was  made  to  forestall 
the  presentation  of  the  Ubel.    WilUam  Smith  offered  the  lieuten- 

^  Jones's  "  History  of  New  York,"   etc.,  I,  24-28.        '  Ihid.,  I,  28-32. 


A  Colonial  Executive  345 

ant-governor's  account  of  his  conduct  long  since  disposed  of; 
John  Morin  Scott,  another  old  pamphlet ;  Isaac  Sears,  a  budget 
of  old  newspapers;  and  William  Livingston,  the  "History  of 
the  Military  operations  in  the  province  of  New  York,"  pubHshed 
in  1758,  and  of  which  he  himself  was  later  discovered  to  be  the 
author.  The  jury  would  have  none  of  them,  but  when  the  pam- 
phlet was  at  length  presented,  they  found  a  bill  and  McDougal 
was  indicted.  However,  before  his  trial  came  on,  the  journey- 
man printer,  who  had  acted  as  informer,  was  hounded  first  out  of 
town  and  then  out  of  America,  while  his  master,  James  Parker, 
was  found  dead  in  his  bed  one  morning,  not  without  suspi- 
cions of  foul  play.  Thus  left  without  witnesses,  the  prose- 
cution was  obliged  to  slacken  its  efforts  and  McDougal 
obtained  his  discharge.  But  he  had  been  clearly  disapproved 
by  the  best  element  in  the  province  and  Golden  felt 
satisfied. 

Indeed,  the  fact  that  nearly  every  one  now  thought  that  Great 
Britain  was  in  the  wrong  and  must  be  shown  her  mistake  in- 
spired a  disposition  to  the  concession  of  immaterial  points  in  all 
but  the  most  radical.  New  York  seemed  hanging  in  the  bal- 
ance. The  pamphlet  just  considered  and  others  Hke  it  were  to 
be  seen  at  every  street  corner ;  the  Sons  of  Liberty  held  frequent 
popular  meetings ;  there  was  much  bad  feeling  between  the  peo- 
ple and  the  soldiers,  which  had  resulted  in  several  skirmishes ; 
while  a  dangerous  encounter  had  only  been  prevented  by  the 
united  force  of  the  Heutenant-governor,  the  magistrates,  and  the 
most  public-spirited  inhabitants.  On  the  other  hand.  Golden 
had  been  extremely  gratified  by  a  notable  attendance  on  the 
usual  New  Year's  Day  reception  at  the  governor's  mansion; 
he  had  evidence  that  the  meetings  were  not  in  reality  as  well 
attended  as  it  was  desired;  he  knew  that  when  Massachusetts 
had  proposed  that  New  York  join  in  an  agreement  to  import 
no  British  goods  until  Parliament  should  remove  all  the  duties 


346  Cadwallader  Colden 

it  had  laid,  the  proposition  had  found  no  seconder  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Sons,  where  it  was  presented. 

Influenced,  therefore,  by  a  desire  to  turn  the  undecided  state 
of  the  community  in  the  right  direction,  Colden  signed  all  bills 
presented  him,  their  number  including  an  apparently  conserva- 
tive proposition  to  debar  judges  from  the  assembly.  On  the 
whole  he  was  pleased  with  the  results  of  his  administration,  and  he 
only  regretted  that  the  end  was  probably  near.  For,  though  he 
had  intimated  that  its  prolongation  would  be  considered  a  re- 
ward for  his  past  services.  Lord  Dunmore  had  been  appointed 
his  successor  almost  on  the  news  of  Sir  Henry's  death.  But  his 
lordship  apparently  was  in  no  hurry,  and  meanwhile  Colden  was 
horrified  to  hear  that  his  Majesty  disapproved  his  passage  of  the 
paper  money  bill,  which  was  disallowed,  and  of  the  bill  exclud- 
ing judges  from  the  assembly  as  well.  When  his  Majesty  was 
considering  one  money  bill,  it  seemed,  his  representative  had 
no  right  to  pass  another  of  a  like  character.  The  appositeness 
of  Colden's  reply  that  that  was  the  very  reason  he  had  done  so 
was  probably  lost  on  his  superiors.  Wherein  lay  the  difficulty 
of  the  other  bill,  Colden  could  not  imagine.  No  judge  was  al- 
lowed to  sit  in  the  Commons ;  the  assembly  had  already  tried  to 
keep  Judge  Livingston  from  his  seat ;  it  was  against  all  consti- 
tutional theory  that  judiciary  and  legislature  should  be  com- 
bined. How  could  any  one  have  dreamed  that  the  passage  of 
such  a  bill  could  injure  prerogative  ?  ^ 

But  the  government  had  spoken.  The  provision  for  quarter- 
ing the  soldiers  was  nulHfied,  the  people  were  antagonized,  a 
devoted  old  servant  feared  to  meet  his  death  under  the  shadow 
of  official  disapproval.^  Surely,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
actual  causes  of  the  American  Revolution,  such  a  clumsy  sys- 
tem of  legislation  as  this  could  not  have  endured  long  in  any  case. 
For  a  government  to  treat  the  legislation  of  an  important  colony 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  216-219.  *  Ibid-,  II,  221-224. 


A  Colonial  Executive  347 

like  casual  letters,  to  be  answered  when  inclination  served, 
sometimes  at  once,  sometimes  not  for  weeks  or  even  months, 
and  when  it  did  take  a  bill  into  consideration  absolutely  to 
disregard  at  a  critical  moment  the  judgment  of  one  who  had 
never  erred  by  concessions  to  the  people,  was  maladministration 
worse  confounded  and  sure  to  meet  its  deserts. 

But,  though  Colden  said  all  he  could,  the  disquahfying  bill 
was  also  disallowed,  while  he  Ukewise  fell  under  condemnation 
because  he  had  encouraged  an  intercolonial  meet  for  discussing 
Indian  trade  regulations,  a  subject  which  had  interested  him 
so  long.  The  English  government  a  few  months  earlier  had 
decided  to  put  Indian  affairs  in  the  hands  of  the  colonial  legis- 
latures, and  before  Moore's  death  the  New  York  legislature 
had  decided  to  leave  the  matter  of  Indian  trade  to  Albany. 
This  Colden  had  considered  bad  policy,  as  it  meant  that  the 
traders,  always  a  shifty  set,  were  to  be  allowed  to  regulate  them- 
selves. When,  therefore,  the  assembly  now  suggested  a  meeting 
of  commissioners  at  New  York  instead,  Colden,  though  it  will 
be  remembered  that  he  had  denounced  the  Stamp  Act  as  illegal, 
warmly  seconded  the  proposition  and  himself  wrote  to  the  vari- 
ous governments.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  meeting,  owing  to 
various  difficulties,  never  took  place,  but  the  delegates  from 
Virginia,  one  of  whom  was  the  celebrated  Patrick  Henry, 
actually  arrived  and  were  advised  by  Colden  to  make  the  best 
of  the  situation,  and  consulting  with  the  New  York  delegates, 
to  formulate  certain  rules  which  might  prove  satisfactory  to 
the  remaining  colonies. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  his  approval  was  denounced  by 
the  government  for  the  same  reason  that  Colden  had  denounced 
the  Stamp  Act  Congress,  namely,  because  it  would  tend  to  en- 
courage a  union  of  the  colonies  for  mutual  benefit.  Circum- 
stances were  undoubtedly  broadening  Colden 's  singularly 
vigorous  intellect  as  he  studied  the  conflicting  forces  which  still 


348  Cadwallader  Colden 

held  the  balance  nearly  true.  The  Sons  of  Liberty  still  dis- 
cussed melodramatic  possibilities;  the  newspapers  still  made 
their  appeal  to  a  wider  audience ;  and  a  committee  of  merchants 
went  down  to  Philadelphia  to  discuss  the  still  undecided  ques- 
tion, to  import  or  not  to  import.  ParUament  had  rescinded  the 
duties  on  very  article  except  tea,  and  the  Philadelphians  had  at 
first  proposed  to  import  everything  with  the  same  exception ;  but 
a  gentleman  answering  to  the  description  of  FrankHn  influenced 
them  to  decide  to  import  nothing  until  Parliament  had  rescinded 
all  duties,  and  the  New  York  gentlemen  returned  as  doubtful  as 
they  had  left.  Still  a  census  taken  of  the  merchandizing  inhabit- 
ants returned  11 80  willing  to  import  as  against  300  unwilHng, 
and  at  the  same  time  Colden 's  patriotic  soul  was  gladdened  by 
the  culminating  incident  of  the  Stamp  Act  controversy.  In  their 
enthusiasm  over  its  repeal.  New  York  had  ordered  an  equestrian 
gilt  statue  of  George  III.  It  had  duly  arrived,  and  one  August 
day  in  1770  it  was  unveiled  on  its  pedestal  in  BowHng  Green  in 
the  presence  of  councillors,  assemblymen,  magistrates,  clergy, 
and  inhabitants  generally.  A  band  played  on  the  ramparts, 
thirty-two  pieces  of  cannon  were  discharged,  the  crowd  drank 
health  and  long  life  to  George  III,  and  then,  while  the  spectators 
shouted  themselves  hoarse,  the  general  of  the  army,  his  officers, 
and  men  marched  from  the  fort  and  around  the  statue.  Just 
before  the  arrival  of  Lord  Dunmore,  moreover,  the  election  of 
city  officials  was  a  decisive  victory  for  the  government  party,  and 
Colden 's  last  letter  happily  recorded  that  the  councillors  and, 
with  one  exception,  the  city  members  of  the  assembly  had  op- 
posed non-importation.^ 

VIII 

At  last  Lord  Dunmore  arrived  and  Colden  retired  to  Spring 
Hill  with  considerably  more  distinction  than  when  he  had  given 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  229. 


A  Colonial  Executive  349 

way  to  Moore.  Before  he  left,  fifty-six  of  the  principal  merchants 
in  town  presented  their  thanks  in  a  body,  as  did  also  the  ministers, 
churchwardens,  vestry,  and  many  members  of  the  estabUshed 
church,  while  he  was  told  that  other  addresses  were  only  pre- 
vented by  his  hasty  departure. 

Eighty-two  years  of  age,  fifty  of  which  had  been  spent  in  the 
service  of  the  crown  ;  it  would  have  seemed  that  Golden  had 
fought  his  last  fight  and  that  his  closing  years  would  be  honoured 
by  the  king.  Yet  he  had  scarcely  reached  Flushing  when  he 
received  a  letter  from  Hillsborough  through  Lord  Dunmore's 
private  secretary.  Captain  Foy,  in  which  his  lordship  said  that 
it  was  the  royal  pleasure  that  a  moiety  of  the  perquisites  and 
emoluments  of  government  received  between  the  date  of  Dun- 
more's commission  and  his  arrival  should  be  accounted  for  and 
paid  to  Dunmore.^  Golden  was  aghast.  The  only  similar 
demand  in  all  his  long  experience  had  been  made  by  Golonel 
Gosby  on  Rip  Van  Dam,  and  though  Gosby  had  been  armed 
with  a  similar  order  and  had  brought  suit  to  recover,  he  had 
failed  to  get  a  penny.  Surely,  after  forty  years,  an  order  then  con- 
sidered indefensible  was  not  to  be  revived  in  his  despite  !  Some- 
thing of  this  he  managed  to  say  to  Gaptain  Foy,  who  only  looked 
calmly  neutral  and  asked  for  an  answer  to  his  lordship.  Gol- 
den said  he  would  give  one  in  person  in  the  morning.  But  all 
attempts  to  draw  Dunmore  into  discussion  failed.  He  would 
only  say  that  the  king  had  a  right  to  do  as  he  had,  and  that  he 
himself  considered  it  his  duty  to  prosecute.  Thus  frankly  met, 
Golden  wrote  to  Hillsborough ;  but  even  while  he  was  writing,  he 
heard  that  suit  was  entered  against  him  by  Lord  Dunmore  in 
the  Gourt  of  Ghancery  in  the  name  of  the  king.  This  meant 
that  whatever  the  result,  it  would  not  cost  Dunmore  a  penny ; 
while  it  meant  also  that  the  result  was  assured  beforehand,  for 
Dunmore  himself  was  chancellor.     Golden  had,  according  to 

1  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  230-329. 


350  Cadwallader  C olden 

his  own  statement,  made  excellent  financial  use  of  his  last 
administration,  and  the  thought  that  he  had  been  working  for 
a  stranger  was  distressing  enough ;  but  he  was  more  disturbed 
at  the  thought  of  meeting  such  a  mark  of  royal  approval  at 
the  very  end  of  his  career.  Yet  while  he  thought  it  unjust 
and  had  no  intention  of  submission,  Dunmore  was  the  object 
of  his  resentment  rather  than  the  government,  whose  thought- 
less indifference  even  to  his  rights  seems  never  to  have  angered 
him. 

Engaging  counsel  and  agents  in  England,  as  well  as  an  attor- 
ney in  New  York,  he  began  to  prepare  his  case.  The  king's 
demand  was  based  on  an  order  of  WilUam  III,  issued  in 
1698,  and  stating  that  in  case  of  the  death  or  absence  of  the 
go vernor-in- chief,  the  acting  executive  should  receive  half  of 
the  governor's  salary,  perquisites,  and  emoluments;  that  the 
governor- in- chief,  appointed  or  to  be  appointed,  should  lay  no 
claim  to  this  moiety  before  he  reached  America  or  during  any 
absence  therefrom,  and  that  his  Majesty  reserve  to  himself 
the  other  half  of  the  said  salary  accruing  between  the  date  of 
the  governor's  commission  and  his  arrival.  This  declaration,  the 
chancery  bill  maintained,  had  been  incorporated  by  the  instruc- 
tions ever  since,  and  therefore  Colden,  from  the  time  of  Moore's 
death  on,  was  entitled  to  but  half  of  his  receipts,  the  king  being 
entitled  to  the  other  half  from  the  time  of  Lord  Dunmore 's 
commission.  Who  was  entitled  to  it  for  the  few  months  not 
mentioned  remained  untold,  and  with  equal  inconsequence  it 
was  announced  as  the  purpose  of  the  bill  that  Colden  should 
account  for  all  his  receipts  from  the  date  of  Dunmore 's  com- 
mission, January  2,  1770,  to  his  arrival  on  October  i8th,  and 
resign  one-half  of  them. 

Colden,  as  he  wrote  to  his  New  York  counsel,  would  gladly 
have  answered  this  on  its  merits,  secure  in  the  fact  that  his 
salary  had  been  granted  him  personally,  and  that  perquisites, 


A  Colonial  Executive  351 

being  voluntary  contributions  for  services  done,  belong  to  the 
person  who  does  the  service.  Therefore  his  perquisites  were 
his  private  property,  and  not  in  the  disposition  of  the  king. 
But  the  nature  of  the  case  obHged  him  to  plead  and  demur  to 
the  court  itself.  His  counsel,  James  Duane,  thought  this  line 
of  defence  bad  policy,  owing  to  Colden's  unfortunate  circum- 
stances, and  though  Golden  begged  at  least  to  be  allowed  to  ask 
his  lordship  on  his  honour  if  he  were  not  an  interested  party, 
the  demurrer  was  free  from  personal  features. 

The  king's  demand  was  so  unjust,  the  premises  on  which  it 
was  founded  so  absurd,  that  it  had  been  easy  to  find  nearly  a 
dozen  reasons  why  it  was  without  any  justification  whatever. 
In  the  first  place,  the  declaration,  which  was  in  itself  but  a  tem- 
porary order  of  King  Wilham's,  had  never  been  incorporated 
in  the  instructions.  According  to  these,  in  case  of  a  governor's 
absence,  his  representative  was  to  share  his  emoluments,  but 
nothing  had  ever  been  said  about  them  in  case  of  his  death,  or 
about  the  right  of  the  king  to  any  part  of  them.  Custom  had 
interpreted  this  to  mean  that  as  a  matter  of  course  the  surviving 
partner,  as  it  were,  should  take  all.  Again,  the  bill  required 
an  account  of  all  receipts  between  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  and 
the  arrival  of  Dunmore,  whereas  it  claimed  for  his  Majesty  a 
moiety  of  such  only  as  had  accrued  since  the  date  of  the  latter's 
commission,  while  the  declaration  of  King  WilHam  reserved 
half  of  the  salary  alone.  The  defendant  also  pointed  out  that 
by  the  bill  the  king  authorized  no  one  to  sue  for  his  moiety  or  to 
receipt  for  the  same,  and  that  without  any  authenticated  copy 
of  the  declaration  it  was  impossible  to  know  whether  it  was 
given  correctly.  If  it  was,  conditions  had  changed  so  as  to 
make  it  no  longer  practicable.  In  1698  the  revenue  of  the 
province  was  granted  to  the  king  in  a  lump  sum,  and  he  could 
do  with  it  as  he  wished.  At  this  period  each  salary  was  granted 
by  name,  and  the  king's  only  connection  therewith  was  through 


352  Cadwallader  Colden 

the  warrants  of  the  governor.  In  conclusion,  the  defendant  re- 
quested further  proof  of  his  obUgations  than  an  unauthenticated 
copy  of  a  letter  from  Lord  Hillsborough,  while  he  also  asked 
whether,  if  authentic,  it  was  a  legal  grant  or  disposal  by  his 
Majesty  of  his  interest  in  the  salary  or  a  legal  appointment  of 
Dunmore  as  his  trustee,  and  if  either,  whether  the  proper  court 
had  been  selected  for  its  recovery.  At  all  events,  he  prayed  the 
dismissal  of  the  suit  with  reasonable  costs. 

Permission  was  given  to  argue  in  support  of  this  demurrer 
on  December  3d,  from  which  date,  owing  to  the  death  of  Mr. 
Duane's  eldest  son,  the  hearing  was  postponed  until  the  loth. 
On  that  day,  according  to  Dunmore's  proposition,  the  court 
was  to  sit  in  the  City  Hall.  But  at  the  last  moment  he  changed 
its  location  to  his  own  house,  where,  despite  this  change  and  an 
hour's  delay  due  to  a  belated  conference  between  the  governor 
and  his  counsel,  WilUam  Smith,  a  large  number  of  townspeople 
heard  Mr.  Duane's  argument.  Duane's  plea  was  long  and 
satisfactory.  It  could  not  very  well  have  been  otherwise,  for  he 
was  skilful  and  the  facts  were  on  his  side.  On  the  7th  of  Feb- 
ruary, Smith  repUed  for  the  king  and  was  answered  by  Duane 
so  pithily  that  every  one  who  heard  him  pronounced  him  vic- 
torious at  every  point,  though  no  one  dreamed  of  his  ultimate 
success.  One  of  his  Unes  of  reasoning  was  this:  The  king 
could  do  no  wrong.  No  one  hving  knew  exactly  what  WiUiam 
meant  when  he  gave  his  verbal  order  seventy  years  before,  nor 
to  what  extent  that  order  had  been  prompted  by  the  king's 
ministers.  The  king,  therefore,  had  no  justification  for  pre- 
empting the  property  of  a  subject,  and  it  happened  that  the 
salary  in  question  had  been  granted  to  Lieutenant-Governor 
Colden  direct,  and  was  not  his  merely  by  inheritance  from  Moore. 

Dunmore  was  as  thick-headed  a  Briton  as  ever  Uved,  but  he 
dishked  being  called  unfair,  and  he  knew  such  a  charge  to  be 
probable,  as  he  had  every  intention  of  giving  a  verdict  in  favour 


A  Colonial  Executive  353 

of  himself.  Accordingly,  merely  to  strengthen  his  cause,  he  de- 
cided to  ask  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  for  their  opinion. 
These,  however,  declared  the  defendant's  points  well  taken. 
Dunmore,  discomfited  and  amazed,  must  have  rejoiced  that  the 
offer  of  the  government  of  Virginia  provided  him  a  possible  way 
of  escape  from  a  situation  that  might  become  disagreeable. 
His  interest  thus  comfortably  divided,  he  despatched  the  papers 
home  with  the  result  that  the  case  was  dropped  as  suddenly  as 
it  had  been  opened.  Indeed,  Hillsborough  actually  asked  Col- 
den  why  he  had  not  told  him  his  wishes  concerning  his  salary ! 
It  was  but  another  instance  of  how  they  managed  things 
then. 

Not  unnaturally  Dunmore  decided  to  go  to  Virginia,  but  he 
was  succeeded  directly  by  William  Tryon,  and  it  was  not  until 
April,  1774,  when  Tryon  returned  home  on  leave  of  absence, 
that  the  responsibility  of  government  again  came  to  Colden. 
By  that  time  forces  and  influences  were  swirling  from  colony  to 
colony,  that  no  power,  probably,  could  have  stopped.  By  that 
time  New  York,  like  the  rest  of  the  colonies,  had  a  revolutionary 
committee,  and  was  watching  as  keenly  as  they  for  every  pound 
of  tea  that  might  find  its  way  to  her  ports.  A  long-expected 
ship,  with  a  large  consignment  from  India,  arrived  at  the  Hook 
shortly  after  Tryon 's  departure,  and  here  its  captain  heard  news 
that  caused  him  indefinitely  to  postpone  his  trip  up  the  Narrows ; 
a  small  sloop  with  Dutch  tea  and  other  commodities  on  board 
was  seized  quietly  at  noon  by  a  custom  house  officer,  who  thus 
forestalled  the  people ;  and  the  cargo  of  a  third  ship  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  mob  whose  rage  was  pointed  by  the  fact  that  its 
captain  had  been  the  first  to  refuse  to  receive  any  tea  on  board 
his  vessel,  and  had  therefore  received  pubUc  thanks  the  pre- 
ceding autumn.  Now  a  parade  celebrated  his  enforced  de- 
parture from  town.  Yet  even  at  this  eleventh  hour,  when  one 
might  have  thought  the  English  government  too  busy  with  its 


354  Cadwallader  C olden 

opponents  not  to  need  all  its  friends,  Colden  received  word  that 
Mr.  Banyer,  for  long  years  the  clerk  of  the  council  and  a  public 
official  of  the  utmost  tact,  skill,  and  loyalty,  was  dismissed; 
there  were  intimations  that,  possibly  on  account  of  age,  he  him- 
self was  to  be  replaced  even  as  lieutenant-governor ;  while  in  his 
efforts  to  unravel  the  tangle  of  grants  near  the  New  Hampshire 
line  he  was  constantly  baffled  by  the  demands  made  for  govern- 
ment placemen,  or  by  advice  from  EngUsh  officials  who  knew 
nothing  about  the  situation.  It  was  even  said,  apparently  on 
authority,  that  those  who  had  preempted  grants  were  receiving 
encouragement  from  the  ministry,  and  Secretary  Pownall  lent 
colour  to  this  report  by  suggesting  that  the  matter  be  settled  by 
commissioners  from  either  province.  But  Colden,  who  consid- 
ered that  New  York  had  never  overstepped  her  rights,  while 
New  Hampshire  had  been  regardless  of  even  a  sense  of  decency 
in  her  encroachments,  promptly  refused  to  consider  such  an 
apparent  recognition  of  her  good  faith. ^ 

About  this  time  arrived  that  attempt  to  repress  the  irrepres- 
sible, known  as  the  Boston  Port  Act,  and  in  an  astonishingly  short 
time  an  account  of  it  was  in  every  American  newspaper  and  its 
discussion  on  every  American  tongue.  An  invitation  was  issued 
to  all  voters  in  New  York  City  to  meet  at  the  Exchange,  to  elect 
a  committee  of  correspondence,  and  there  many  of  its  most 
valuable  citizens  were  seen  for  the  first  time  at  a  meeting  called 
for  forming  plans  of  organized  resistance  to  the  policies  of 
George  III  and  his  ministers.  That  their  policy  was  ill-con- 
sidered and  unendurable  these  conservative  burghers  had  felt 
as  keenly  as  the  poHtical  demagogues  who  had  so  long  been 
prominent  in  opposition.  At  the  same  time  they  had  so  little 
sympathy  with  mere  agitation,  their  point  of  view  was  so  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  a  typical  Son  of  Liberty,  that  they  had  stayed 
away  until  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  hope  that  they  might  prevent 

*  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  342. 


A  Colonial  Executive  355 

imprudent  measures  drew  them  from  their  comfortable  neu- 
traHty. 

The  result  was  satisfactory.  The  existing  committee  was 
dissolved,  and  a  committee  of  fifty-one,  representing  the  best 
elements  in  town,  was  elected  in  their  place ;  Scott,  McDougal, 
and  Sears  being  among  those  discredited.  There  were,  of  course, 
radical  members  in  the  new  committee,  but,  as  was  soon  evi- 
dent, the  conservatives  had  the  upper  hand.  The  Boston  letters 
urging  a  refusal  to  import  until  the  Port  Act  was  repealed  re- 
ceived a  discouraging  reply;  Philadelphia's  request  for  a  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer  was  likewise  evaded;  while  the  extreme 
measures  proposed  by  the  radical  members  were  uniformly 
disapproved.  Colden,  it  is  true,  was  somewhat  disappointed 
when  the  committee  wrote  to  all  the  counties  asking  the  appoint- 
ment of  committees  of  correspondence,  and  when  they  so  easily 
decided  to  do  all  they  could  to  make  the  forthcoming  Continental 
Congress,  to  be  held  at  Philadelphia,  a  success.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  was  reassured  by  the  good  judgment  of  the  committee, 
as  shown  in  the  selection  of  delegates.  The  majority  of  the  five 
named  were  men  whose  opinions  and  character  assured  the 
Loyalists  that  they  would  be  a  bulwark  for  all  they  held 
dear,  and  all  classes  joined  in  their  election.  There  seemed 
ground  for  the  hope  of  a  firm  union  with  England  on  consti- 
tutional principles.  "If  the  delegates  pursue  only  prudent  and 
concihating  measures,"  Colden  wrote,  "the  meeting,  though 
illegal,  may  do  good."  There  were,  he  added,  all  through  the 
province  people  whose  greatest  wish  was  harmony,  and  who  were 
assured  that,  could  it  be  thought  consistent  with  the  wisdom  of 
Parliament  to  lay  aside  the  right  of  taxation,  the  assemblies, 
instead,  granting  to  the  crown  a  sufiicient  and  permanent  sup- 
port of  government,  this  might  be  attained  and  the  dependence 
of  the  colonies  be  assured.* 

'  Colden  Letter  Books,  II,  342. 


356  Cadwallader  Golden 

Colden's  growing  sense  of  tolerance  was  due  in  no  sense  to 
failing  powers.  For  many  years  republican  sentiment  in  New 
York  had  been  a  matter  of  party,  of  faction;  and  Golden  felt 
it  was  so  still.  He  was  convinced  that  the  next  general  election 
was  a  cause  of  more  anxiety  to  many  poHticians  than  the 
decision  of  Parhament  on  the  Port  Act ;  he  was  urging  the  en- 
couragement of  King's  College  as  a  seminary  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  loyalty,  as  Yale  and  Princeton  were  of  sedition;  but 
when  he  saw  men  whom  he  could  trust  take  up  the  problem  of 
the  relations  between  England  and  America,  he  was  not  re- 
strained by  narrow  prejudice  from  wishing  them  well,  even 
though  they  were  associated  with  those  he  so  disapproved. 

But  while  he  looked  to  the  Congress  in  hope,  his  attention  was 
demanded  by  more  insistent  matters.  In  the  county  of  Char- 
lotte were  the  holdings  which,  granted  originally  and  with  little 
justification  by  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  had  been  de- 
clared out  of  his  jurisdiction  by  the  order  in  council  making  the 
Connecticut  River  the  eastern  boundary  of  New  York.  Indeed, 
a  great  part  of  the  land  had  been  granted  by  New  York  under 
the  proclamation  of  1763.  But,  though  New  Hampshire's 
governor  no  longer  assumed  jurisdiction  west  of  the  Connecti- 
cut, the  holders  of  the  spurious  patents  refused  to  consider 
themselves  under  the  laws  of  New  York,  and  threatened  all 
those  who  did  so,  as  well  as  the  magistrates  themselves.  Finally, 
they  had  gone  the  length  of  erecting  a  two-story  blockhouse 
at  Otter  Creek  and  another  on  the  Onion  River,  from  which 
strongholds  they  defied  the  officers  of  the  law.  Indeed,  they  set 
up  officers  and  courts  of  their  own  and  assumed  an  attitude  so 
menacing  that  the  sober-minded  inhabitants  and  the  magis- 
trates appealed  to  the  governor  and  council.  The  council 
unanimously  advised  that  a  mihtary  force  be  sent  up  for  the 
reduction  of  the  miscreants,  and  Colden  wrote  to  Gage  asking 
his  cooperation.     It  was  an  excellent  opportunity,  he  urged,  to 


A  Colonial  Executive  357 

show  how  necessary  the  regulars  could  be.  But  Gage  rejfused, 
because  some  other  general  had  refused  a  Uke  request,  and  the 
government  had  approved  his  refusal. 

The  winter  setting  in  at  this  point,  the  Charlotte  County 
revolution  became  for  a  time  a  foreign  episode.  But  early  in  the 
spring  of  1775  came  news  that  the  Bennington  rioters,  as  the 
malcontents  were  called,  had  seized  the  justice  of  the  peace,  tried 
him,  and  sentenced  him  to  two  hundred  lashes  and  ultimate 
banishment.  The  excitement,  moreover,  had  spread  to  Cum- 
berland County,  south  of  Charlotte,  and  adjoining  both  New 
Hampshire  and  Massachusetts.  Here  the  rioters,  having  taken 
possession  of  the  court-house  just  before  term  time,  a  scrimmage 
followed,  and  the  sheriff  and  his  assistants  making  use  of  their 
guns,  one  rioter  was  killed  and  several  wounded.  In  conse- 
quence the  court-house  was  abandoned  and  the  courts  were 
opened.  But  the  next  day  reenforcements  for  the  outlaws  ar- 
riving from  Massachusetts,  they  took  the  judge,  the  sheriff,  the 
clerk  of  the  court,  and  several  others  prisoners,  putting  them 
in  the  county  jail,  whence  they  were  transferred  to  that  of 
Northampton,  Massachusetts. 

As  in  Charlotte,  the  rioters  were  supposed  to  be  fighting  for 
their  homesteads,  but  there  was  a  strong  political  element  in 
their  purposes.  The  government  messenger,  who  had  been 
sent  up  from  New  York  for  exact  information,  returned  saying 
that  if  he  had  crossed  the  border  of  the  county  he  would  have 
been  surely  put  to  death ;  while  the  representatives  of  the  county 
in  the  assembly,  who  had  there  voted  with  the  conservatives, 
were  warned  by  their  families  on  no  account  to  dare  venture 
home.  Colden  insisted  also  that  the  New  Hampshire  patentees, 
as  well  as  those  of  New  York,  were  living  in  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  their  titles,  and  that  if  the  debts  of  the  fighters  were 
paid  there  would  not  be  a  sixpence  left  among  them.  Colden, 
moreover,    laid    the    assembly's    refusal    to   give    him    more 


358  Cadwallader  Colden 

than  ;i^iooo  for  the  restoration  of  order  to  the  influence  of 
the  extreme  Whigs,  who  found  wiUing  hearers  in  the  close- 
fisted  country  members.  A  thousand  pounds  would  not  go  far 
toward  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection,  and  Gage  was  ap- 
pealed to  again,  when,  after  considerable  delay,  he  sent  some 
arms  and  ammunition  to  Colden  for  the  use  of  the  well-disposed 
Cumberlanders.  But  he  was  too  late.  The  battle  of  Lexington 
had  been  fought,  the  whole  country  was  slowly  reahzing  that 
it  was  in  a  state  of  war,  and  the  little  rebelUon  was  soon  lost 
in  the  Revolution. 

Meanwhile,  Colden  had  been  watching  New  York  with  eager 
interest  as  she  tried  to  solve  her  problems.  Notwithstanding 
the  high  hopes  of  the  loyalists,  their  counsels  had  not  prevailed 
at  the  Philadelphia  congress.  That  body  had  found  a  set  of 
resolutions  which  had  emanated  from  Suffolk  County,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  which  practically  declared  war  against  Great 
Britain,  unless  she  mended  her  ways  right  speedily,  more  to  its 
taste  than  halfway  measures.  For  instance,  the  elaborate  plan 
for  a  constitutional  union  offered  by  Mr.  Duane  of  New  York 
and  Mr.  Galloway,  the  Philadelphia  loyalist,  though  debated, 
was  not  even  entered  on  the  minutes.  But  these  resolves  had 
to  do  with  the  future.  It  was  the  non-importation  agreement 
of  the  congress  with  which  the  colonies  must  deal  at  once. 
Most  of  them,  it  was  certain,  would  support  it ;  but  no  one  knew 
what  the  great  province  of  New  York  would  decide  to  do,  and 
the  odds  seemed  fairly  even  as  the  coming  of  the  assembly  was 
breathlessly  awaited.  The  congressional  delegates  had,  after 
all,  not  been  fairly  representative.  Several  counties  had  re- 
fused to  participate,  either  by  the  election  of  delegates  or  the 
adoption  of  resolutions,  and  others  had  done  so  but  feebly.  In 
Queens,  Colden 's  summer  home,  not  six  persons  had  appeared 
at  the  meeting  called  for  the  purpose,  while  a  gentleman  who 
had  been  present  told  Colden  that  the  election  in  Orange  had 


A  Colonial  Executive  359 

been  left  to  less  than  twenty  among  three  thousand  freeholders. 
New  York,  moreover,  was  publishing  more  pro-administration 
pamphlets  than  all  the  other  colonies  put  together,  while  the 
Whig  propaganda,  which  Colden  feared  most,  consisted  in  the 
pubhcation  of  reprints  of  EngUsh  speeches,  both  in  and  out  of 
Parhament.  Colden  was  also  encouraged  by  another  circum- 
stance. It  being  known  that  certain  New  York  merchants  had 
received  orders  for  supplying  the  army  at  Boston,  a  public 
meeting  was  called,  and,  though  the  attendance  was  neither 
large  nor  of  good  quahty,  it  was  voted  to  send  a  committee  to 
urge  the  merchants  to  provide  neither  the  army  nor  the  trans- 
ports. This  interference  was  much  resented,  and  not  alone  by 
the  merchants;  the  committee  of  fifty-one  in  turn  calHng  a 
public  meeting,  at  which  it  was  declared  that  the  action  of  the 
previous  gathering  had  been  without  public  authority. 

This,  to  be  sure,  happened  before  the  news  of  the  action  of 
Congress  had  been  received,  the  arrival  of  which,  about  the 
2d  of  November,  resulted  immediately  in  the  dissolution  of 
the  committee  of  fifty-one,  and  the  choice  of  another  to  exe- 
cute the  new  measures.  As  usual,  the  people  were  summoned 
by  handbills ;  but  for  some  reason  only  thirty  or  forty  attended, 
and  the  committee  of  sixty  nominated  by  their  predecessors  was 
promptly  chosen.  Among  these  Colden  was  surprised  to  see 
the  names  of  several  well-known  conservatives,  but  he  soon 
found  that  they  had  accepted  a  nomination  merely  in  the  hope 
of  preventing  the  uncurbed  leadership  of  the  radicals.  "The 
spirit  of  mobbing"  was  abroad,  and  it  was  easy  at  any  time  for  a 
few  people  to  collect  a  crowd  ready  to  do  anything  that  they 
were  told. 

Almost  immediately  also  it  became  evident  that  New  York 
was  going  to  subscribe  to  the  non-importation  agreement,  the 
only  difficulty  seeming  to  be  the  proper  status  of  the  smuggler, 
who  was  pursuing  his  chosen  occupation  as  merrily  as  ever. 


360  Cadwallader  Colden 

This  contraband  trade  was  largely  with  the  Dutch,  and  vessels 
from  Holland  and  St.  Eustatius  in  large  numbers  still  anchored 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  numerous  bays  and  creeks  in  the  vicinity 
of  New  York.  Thence  they  would  send  their  goods  to  the  town 
in  the  small  boats  always  to  be  hired.  Sometimes  these  were 
seized  and  sold  at  auction,  but  at  a  price  so  low  that  their 
owners  could  easily  buy  them  back ;  and  Colden  thought  that 
if  all  the  boats  thus  taken  and  not  bringing  a  certain  price  were 
destroyed,  their  owners  would  be  less  wilHng  to  serve  the  mer- 
chants. But  what  he  chiefly  wanted  was  two  or  three  coasting 
vessels.  The  Custom  House  did  not  own  a  single  boat,  and  its 
work  was  consequently  greatly  handicapped.  Colden 's  grand- 
son, however,  who  had  lately  been  made  surveyor  and  searcher, 
had  succeeded  in  seizing  several  vessels,  and  had  been  so 
diligent  that  he  had  been  given  to  understand  that  a 
little  negligence  would  be  worth  ;^i5oo  a  year  to  him.  It 
therefore  seemed  to  Colden  that  if  the  government,  after  hiring 
the  desired  vessels,  promised  the  officers  and  men  a  percentage 
of  their  seizures  besides  their  pay,  the  merchants  could  scarcely 
afford  to  go  higher.  But  the  question  with  the  patriots  was, 
whether  the  smugglers  should  be  considered  importers.  For 
example,  no  tea  was  to  be  landed  after  December  ist;  yet  the 
smugglers  were  expecting  large  quantities  of  Dutch  tea,  and 
insisted  that  it  should  be  exempt.  Others  said  the  fair  traders 
should  not  be  the  only  sufferers,  and  the  whole  subject  was 
debated  with  an  openness  shocking  to  Colden. 

It  was  now  also  necessary  for  the  lieutenant-governor,  accord- 
ing to  the  royal  orders,  to  see  that  no  arms  or  ammunition  were 
admitted  into  the  colony  unless  under  government  license. 
Shortly  after  these  commands  arrived,  the  collector  discovered 
ten  chests  of  arms,  three  boxes  of  lead,  and  one  barrel  of  powder 
on  a  vessel  bound  for  Rhode  Island,  all  of  which  had  lately  been 
shipped  from  London  as  hardware.    Attempts  were  made  to 


A  Colonial  Executive  361 

bully  Mr.  Elliott  into  letting  it  alone,  but,  supported  by  Golden, 
he  held  firm,  and  the  principal  townsmen  and  merchants  waited 
on  him  in  a  body  to  testify  their  approval.  Still,  when  the 
assembly  was  at  last  on  the  point  of  meeting.  Golden  could  only 
say  that  a  good  majority  of  the  most  respectable  were  yet  for 
harmony.  But  the  colonies  around  them  were  electing  pro- 
\dncial  congresses,  and  Golden  endeavoured  to  prepare  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  worst,  by  reminding  him  that 
"enthusiasm  is  very  contagious  and  when  backed  by  art 
irresistible." 

The  assembly,  summoned  for  January  10,  1775,  did  not  make 
a  quorum  until  January  13th,  and  two  days  after  they  ten- 
dered an  address  highly  satisfactory  to  Golden,  for  while  de- 
ploring the  government's  poHcy  and  insisting  on  the  necessity 
of  a  change,  it  was  full  of  loyalty  to  the  absent  governor.  Great 
Britain,  and  the  king.  Twelve  members  still  being  absent, 
the  house  voted  to  defer  the  consideration  of  the  proceedings  of 
Congress  until  February  5th.  However,  on  January  29th,  a  few 
more  Whigs  having  straggled  in,  it  was  moved  to  take  those  pro- 
ceedings into  consideration,  and,  after  a  hot  debate,  the  motion 
was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  eleven  to  ten.  Two  weeks  later  a 
motion  to  return  the  thanks  of  the  house  to  the  congressional 
delegates  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  sixteen  to  nine,  and  still 
later  another  motion  to  take  the  sense  of  the  house  in  regard  to 
the  appointment  of  delegates  to  the  next  Continental  Congress, 
to  be  held  in  May,  was  defeated  seventeen  to  nine.^  When  it  is 
remembered  that  every  other  assembly  that  had  met  since  the 
closing  of  Congress  had  approved  its  measures,  it  must  be  con- 
ceded at  least  that  the  assembly  of  New  York  had  the  courage 
of  its  convictions.  They  next  approved  the  work  of  the  com- 
mittee which,  having  reported  according  to  order  on  the  griev- 
ances of  the  colonies,  had  been  ordered  to  make  a  humble,  firm, 
1  Jones's  *'  History  of  New  York,"  I,  36. 


362  Cadwallader  Colden 

dutiful,  and  loyal  petition  to  the  throne,  a  memorial  to  the  Lords, 
and  a  representation  and  remonstrance  to  the  Commons  of 
Great  Britain,  in  all  of  which  Colden  witnessed  that  there  was 
not  an  immoderate  or  disrespectful  Une.  Then,  Colden  having 
adjourned  them  until  June,  "Lord  Livingston,"  Colonel 
Schuyler,  and  others  of  the  more  radical  members  hurried  off  to 
secure  the  popular  election  of  delegates  that  the  assembly  had 
refused. 

Meanwhile,  a  ship  arriving  from  Glasgow,  though  allowed 
to  enter  the  dock,  was  at  once  carried  off  to  the  watering-place, 
where  a  sloop  with  armed  men  on  board  stood  guard  to  prevent 
her  coming  up  to  the  town.  With  the  advice  of  the  council, 
Colden  ordered  Captain  Montague,  of  his  Majesty's  sloop 
Kingfisher,  then  in  the  harbour,  to  see  that  no  damage  was  done 
the  ship,  and  to  give  his  master  any  assistance  he  might  ask. 
But,  much  to  the  spirited  old  man's  disgust,  the  captain  was  "a 
stupid  body,"  who  would  neither  make  a  complaint  nor  ask 
assistance,  and  the  consignees  were  irresolute  enough  to  see 
their  goods  sail  off  without  demanding  them.  The  government, 
therefore,  could  interfere  to  no  good  purpose.  Another  ship 
from  Jamaica  received  hke  treatment,  and  Colden  found  no 
other  explanation  for  conduct  at  such  variance  with  the  assem- 
bly's action  than  the  remembrance  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act.  Violent  proceedings  had  forced  one  repeal,  why  should 
they  not  again  have  that  effect  ? 

But,  notwithstanding  her  agreement  in  practical  policy  with 
the  other  colonies.  New  York  was  very  unpopular,  and  the 
object  of  many  threats  from  her  more  ardent  neighbours.  The 
Southern  colonies,  for  instance,  sent  word  that  they  were  going 
to  Massachusetts  by  way  of  New  York,  and  though  Colden 
judged  this  to  be  mere  bravado,  he  thought  the  hundred  pri- 
vates left  after  the  departure  of  the  army  for  Boston  a  small 
garrison  for  such  an  important  town,  and  suggested  that  a 


A  Colonial  Executive  363 

large  sloop  be  sent  to  guard  the  harbour.  From  his  point  of 
view,  he  was  right.  Not  the  least  of  the  terrors  before  the 
province  that  had  dared  be  unique  was  the  prospect  of  losing 
all  debts  due  from  the  other  colonies.  Naturally,  those  who 
disapproved  of  the  assembly's  pohcy  anyway  were  rendered 
still  more  disgusted  by  the  prospect  of  having  to  suffer  the  con- 
sequences. The  city  was  soon  in  a  whirl  of  riots.  The  idea 
of  the  colonists  fighting  the  king's  troops  was  so  mad,  Golden 
was  still  convinced,  that  it  could  scarcely  be  taken  seriously; 
yet  that  was  no  reason  for  improper  neglect,  and  every  day  now 
offered  him  additional  proofs  that  the  irresolute  magistrates 
and  the  hundred  privates  were  no  match  for  the  rioters. 

Some  time  before,  the  New  York  City  loyalists  had  publicly 
declared  against  any  further  cooperation  with  the  Continental 
Congress,  but  when  it  was  announced  that  a  meeting  for  the 
election  of  deputies  would  be  held  at  the  Exchange  on  a  certain 
day,  they  resolved  to  take  part.  Accordingly,  they  met  in  the 
Fields  and  proceeded  to  the  meeting-place  in  a  body.  Thither 
the  opposition  had  also  marched  through  the  town,  drums  beat- 
ing, flags  flying,  trumpets  sounding,  until  by  force  of  these  attrac- 
tions they  concluded  their  parade  with  a  mob  at  their  heels. 
Then,  the  leaders  having  drawn  to  one  side,  announcement  was 
made  first  of  the  nomination  of  the  delegates  and  almost  at 
once  of  the  election  of  the  nominees;  and  when  the  loyalists 
demanded  representation,  there  was  a  show  of  bludgeons  and 
other  weapons,  if  not  their  appUcation,  and  the  protestants  were 
obUged  to  cease  their  protestations. 

To  the  people  thus  halting  between  two  courses  came  the  news 
of  the  skirmish  at  Lexington.  A  popular  meeting  was  called, 
the  committee  took  charge  of  the  city,  the  Custom  House  was 
temporarily  closed,  the  post  route  between  New  York  and  Bos- 
ton was  given  up,  independent  companies  drilled  daily,  and  an 
association  was  formed  by  which  New  York  solemnly  united 


364  Cadwalldder  Colden 

with  her  sister  colonies  against  the  authority  of  Parliament. 
Colonel  Morris,  Mr.  Watts,  Mr.  Wilkins,  Colonel  Maunsell, 
and  others  hastily  made  ready  for  England  to  see  what  they 
could  do  to  bridge  the  crisis,  and  Colden,  seeing  Congress  and 
committee  in  complete  control,  and  obliged  to  remain  a  spectator 
only,  left  for  Flushing.  Thence  he  directed  the  departure  of 
the  scanty  garrison  for  Boston  on  the  ship  which  had  arrived 
too  late  to  be  of  any  real  use ;  there  he  received  and  answered 
the  address  of  the  New  York  committee,  the  committee  telling 
him  that  all  measures  for  redress  had  failed  and  he  attempting 
a  final  defence  of  king  and  Parliament ;  thence,  again,  he  told 
the  ministry  how  apparent  it  had  been  to  him  that  a  httle  care 
and  foresight  could  have  saved  New  York  at  least ;  thence  also 
for  more  than  a  year  he  watched  the  contest  with  unflagging 
interest.  But  the  embattled  farmers  had  put  an  essential  end 
to  the  British  government  of  the  colonies,  its  efficiency  had  ceased 
on  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  and  on  that  date  also  Colden  had 
ceased  in  any  real  sense  to  be  a  colonial  executive. 

His  long  official  career  was  over,  and  it  is,  therefore,  now  pos- 
sible to  do  that  for  which  his  contemporaries  had  neither  the 
time  nor  the  inchnation  and,  considering  his  political  activity 
as  a  whole,  to  take  stock  of  its  accomplishments,  to  try  to  dis- 
cover whether,  from  England's  standpoint,  its  influence  was 
harmful  or  the  reverse.  For  fifty-five  years  he  had  represented 
and  served  her  in  one  of  her  most  important  provinces,  and 
remembering  his  varied  tastes  and  interests,  his  friends  and  his 
ancestry,  it  would  seem  scarcely  possible  that  he  had  not  helped 
to  enhance  her  prestige  and  develop  her  resources.  Of  excellent 
Scotch  stock,  the  simple  but  sturdy  ambition  characteristic  of 
his  family  had  until  his  day  found  ample  satisfaction  in  a  clerical 
or  mercantile  career  and  in  the  possession  of  the  respect  of  the 
county  famines.  But  Colden  had  looked  farther  afield,  and  by 
sheer  force  of  a  never-flagging  industry  and  an  unconquerable 


A  Colonial  Executive  365 

determination  to  make  the  most  of  every  faculty  he  had  achieved 
much.  Beginning  hfe  as  a  poor  country  boy  in  an  uninspiring 
Scotch  parish,  he  could  have  said  at  its  close  that  he  had  been  a 
merchant ;  a  physician  who  had  succeeded  in  adding  something 
to  the  total  of  medical  knowledge ;  a  learned  botanist ;  an 
absorbed,  if  somewhat  unsuccessful,  investigator  in  almost  all 
the  known  sciences,  in  astronomy,  in  physics,  in  chemistry,  and 
in  what  we  now  call  psychology;  a  student  of  sanitation  far 
in  advance  of  his  day;  an  educator  to  whom  the  interests  of 
education  were  a  passion;  an  acceptable  historian;  the  chief 
administrator  of  the  lands  of  one  of  the  largest  British  provinces 
for  nearly  half  a  century ;  and,  finally,  for  many  years  its  leading 
official.  Thus,  though  not  a  man  of  genius,  nor  even  perhaps 
of  great  talent,  Colden  had  been  saved  from  becoming  a  mere 
dilettante  by  a  sense  of  public  duty,  which  with  him  had  always 
been  stronger  than  incHnation,  while  at  the  same  time  his  pas- 
sion for  discovery  and  experiment  had  taught  him  the  humihty 
of  the  true  scientist  however  tenacious  he  might  be  of  the  ulti- 
mate success  of  some  of  his  theories.  When  it  is  added  to  all 
this  that  he  had  many  excellent  social  qualities,  that  he  had  the 
abiUty  to  keep,  as  well  as  make,  friends,  that  he  was  a  thought- 
ful as  well  as  an  affectionate  father,  it  would  seem  that,  provided 
he  had  the  abihty,  his  success  as  an  official  was  assured.  But 
unfortunately  the  moment  his  mind  touched  on  politics,  where 
within  certain  limits  he  was  more  at  home,  more  original,  and 
more  skilful  than  in  any  other  phase  of  activity,  his  sympathy, 
his  plasticity,  his  humanity  even,  dropped  from  him  and  he 
became  a  martinet,  an  intolerant  theorist,  an  implacable  stickler 
for  the  letter  of  the  law,  while  tact  and  common  sense  became 
quahties  to  him  unknown.  From  his  standpoint,  the  freeborn 
colonists  about  him,  many  of  them  of  foreign  blood,  and  many 
more  without  even  a  childish  memory  of  EngUsh  traditions  of 
rank  and  class,  were  to  be  dealt  with  not  as  thinking  human 


366  Cadwallader  Colden 

beings,  but  rather  as  mere  animated  puppets  who  persisted  in 
making  irritating  use  of  their  animation.  If  they  rebelled  at 
the  word  of  command,  force  must  be  appUed.  It  was  absurd 
that  they  should  presume  even  to  argue,  and  that  they  should 
have  any  consideration  was  preposterous. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
his  large  and  sane  views  of  territorial  expansion,  of  humanity 
to  the  native  population,  of  systematic  development,  were  quite 
lost  sight  of.  Few  there  were  in  the  province  who  could  have 
appreciated  statesmanship  in  any  case;  fewer  still  could  have 
perceived  it  in  such  untoward  surroundings.  In  justice  to 
Colden,  however,  it  must  be  remembered  that  his  theories  were 
in  the  main  right,  that  he  wanted  nothing  of  any  one  that  he  was 
unwilling  to  give  himself,  and  that  this  was  little  more  than  an 
EngUshman's  unquestioning  loyalty  and  instinctive  obedience. 
The  difiEiculty  was  that  he  never  gave  himself  the  trouble  to 
understand,  and  apparently  no  one  ever  suggested  to  him,  that 
England's  New  York  subjects,  with  their  varying  antecedents, 
must  be  appealed  to  and  not  coerced.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
these  subjects  were  as  stubborn  and  narrow  in  their  independence 
as  Colden  was  in  his  conservatism,  while  their  leaders  were  often 
unscrupulous  men  without  even  the  grace  of  strong  convictions. 
Still  if  in  extreme  old  age  the  rousing  events  of  November,  1765, 
changed  Colden's  outlook  to  a  marked  extent,  some  salutary 
advice  from  his  venerated  superiors,  perhaps,  would  have  availed 
much  in  his  comparative  youth.  The  truth  is  that  if  a  rigid 
devotion  to  form  and  an  unrestrained  expression  of  a  critical 
opinion  made  Colden  detested  and  probably  reacted  on  the 
country  he  represented,  any  injury  he  may  have  worked  her  un- 
wittingly was  her  own  fault.  That  England  in  any  real  sense 
of  the  word  governed  America  during  the  years  of  Colden's 
career  is  undoubtedly  not  true.  Up  to  the  time  of  Walpole's 
fall,  indeed,  the  avowed  intention  of  the  British  government 


A  Colonial  Executive  367 

was  to  let  the  colonies  work  out  their  own  problems  and,  whether 
that  was  a  sensible  proceeding  in  a  government  that  expected 
sometime  to  assert  itself  or  not,  it  was  at  least  a  consistently 
maintained  course  of  action.  But  from  Walpole's  time  on,  the 
colonies  suffered  from  a  pohcy  of  alternate  neglect  and  attention 
that  seemed  at  times  to  be  dictated  by  a  very  demon  of  maUce. 
During  all  that  time,  New  York,  at  least,  had  probably  but  one 
man  at  once  interested  enough,  well-informed  enough,  and  deter- 
mined enough  to  be  able  and  wilHng  to  tell  the  whole  truth  about 
her  to  the  home  government.  And  what  was  the  result  ?  Nearly 
always  Uterally  in  the  right,  Colden  repeatedly  endeavoured 
to  prove  this  to  a  set  of  ministers,  who,  with  few  exceptions,  were 
not  even  mildly  interested  in  the  distant  colony.  In  consequence, 
they  were  bored  to  distraction.  But  instead  of  telhng  him  so, 
they,  with  extraordinary  perverseness,  would  leave  him  in  sus- 
pense for  months,  and  then  perhaps  give  some  mark  of  their 
approval  to  the  very  man  or  men  he  had  been  trying  to  picture 
as  subverting  the  government.  Advised  by  EngUsh  friends  that 
their  great  men  rarely  referred  to  back  papers,  he  had  then  noth- 
ing to  do  but  go  over  the  whole  case  and  make  himself  still  more 
wearisome.  Meanwhile,  every  one  in  the  province  understood 
that  he  was  unapproved,  and  he  knew  that  they  understood  it. 
Yet  even  when  his  firm  prejudices  relaxed  in  favour  of  some 
colonial  demand,  the  ministry  were  no  more  ready  to  take  his 
advice  than  if  he  had  been  the  veriest  demagogue.  His  sugges- 
tions and  his  advice  ignored,  himself  discredited  in  the  eyes 
of  every  intelligent  person  in  the  colonies,  he  was  yet  left 
until  the  end  in  a  position  where  at  any  moment  he  might  be 
obUged  to  command  the  colony,  as  indeed  he  did  do  over  and 
over  again. 

But  whether  he  was  in  first  or  second  place  made  no  difference. 
The  government  was  completely  out  of  touch  with  provincial 
affairs,  and,  notwithstanding  its  annual  catechism  of  its  gov- 


368  Cadwallader  Colden 

ernors,  desired  nothing  more  than  to  remain  so.  Such  a  strenu- 
ous, eager  person  as  Colden  was  distinctly  annoying,  but  even 
to  tell  him  so  was  too  much  trouble,  and  it  was  far  easier  to  let 
him  make  his  suggestions  and  pay  no  attention.  As  he  had  more 
than  once  proved  of  direct  practical  assistance  to  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  government  had  apparently  appreciated  his  ser- 
vices, there  seems  to  be  no  other  answer  to  the  question  why 
there  was  no  attempt  whatever  made  to  come  to  some  under- 
standing with  such  a  faithful,  if  bigoted,  servant,  whose  devo- 
tion promised  an  easy  response.  Such  astonishing  and  long- 
continued  negUgence,  such  indifference,  varied,  as  it  was,  by 
arbitrary  and  spasmodic  interference,  could  not  long  have  con- 
tinued in  any  case  even  had  George  III  been  but  a  repetition 
of  his  father,  even  had  he  had  stronger  and  better  advisers. 
A  system  that  was  one  vast  difference  of  opinion  was  becoming 
too  irritating  for  endurance,  and  some  fixed  understanding  as  to 
functions  and  obligations  must  have  been  reached;  some  con- 
stitutional forms  must  have  been  universally  accepted  even  had 
there  been  no  appeal  to  force.  Perhaps,  if  Colden 's  reactionary 
advice  had  been  early  taken,  the  necessity  for  this  in  one  prov- 
ince might  have  brought  about  a  demand  for  it  in  all,  and  New 
York  might  have  led  the  way  to  constitutional  reform.  It  is 
even  conceivable  that  his  schemes  might  have  been  passively 
accepted  if  supported  with  sufficient  strength,  and  then  New 
York  might  have  set  the  example  of  a  colony  developing  natu- 
rally with  the  cooperation  of  the  home  government.  But  Col- 
den's  advice  was  not  taken  in  sufficient  quantities  to  prove  its 
quality,  and  while  he  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  a  force  for 
harmony,  his  executive  career  was  so  circumscribed,  he  was  so 
deprived  of  the  wholesome  friction  of  argument  with  equal  and 
superior  authorities  whose  good  faith  and  loyalty  he  could  trust, 
that  of  whatever  else  he  may  be  accused,  he  cannot  be  said  ac- 
curately to  have  taken  an  essential  part  in  the  precipitation  of 


A  Colonial  Executive  369 

the  great  disagreement.  But  it  can  be  said  that  what  he  might 
have  done  in  the  interests  of  peace  was  left  undone,  and  that, 
whether  his  own  fault  or  that  of  others,  what  might  have  been 
a  career  of  great  political  usefulness  is  interesting  chiefly  for 
what  it  failed  to  accomplish. 


2B 


INDEX 


Abercrombie,  General,  262. 

Address  to  the  Freeholders  and  Freemen, 
etc..  An,  194. 

Alexander,  James,  114,  121,  128,  236,  238, 
255;  Clinton's  adviser,  201;  friend- 
ship for  Colden,  7,  9,  17,  68,  irg,  120, 
124,  244,  248;  the  "oblong"  syn- 
dicate, 40,  41,  65;  letters  from,  64, 
66,  69,  70,  134,  201,  204,  233,  245- 
247;  memberof  council,  112;  political 
effacement,  127;  restoration,  157,  192, 
244. 

American  Chronicle,  The,  292. 

Amherst,  Sir  Jeffrey,  265,  267,  272,  278, 
290,  292,  293. 

Andros,  Governor,  28. 

Appeals,  question  of,  300-308;  attitude 
of  Colden  on,  301,  302,  303,  304,  305, 
306,  307,  308;  opinion  of  the  New 
York  assembly  on,  327,  328;  of  the 
New  York  council  on,  307,  308;  of 
the  privy  council  on,  319. 

Assembly,  the  general,  of  New  York, 
address,  omission  of,  167;  on  Colden, 
185,  210,  327,  328,  337;  on  Cclden's 
vindication,  334;  on  Great  Britain's 
policy,  297,  298;  on  the  financial 
instructions  to  the  New  York  govern- 
ors, 225;  on  the  right  of  access  to 
the  governor,  211;  on  taxation,  338; 
on  the  Charlotte  rebellion,  357;  rep- 
resentations of,  152,  167;  remon- 
strance of,  180,  184,  185,  190;  on 
"To  the  Betrayed  Inhabitants,  etc.," 
342,  343- 

Assembly  of  1775,  loyalty  of,  361. 

Ayscough,  Secretary,  248;  letters  from, 
^9t  7S>  76,  220,  236,  240,  241,  243. 

Banyer,  Secretary,  212,  213,  214,  282,  354. 
Bartram,  John,  8. 
Bayard,  Nicholas,  72,  73. 
Bayard,  Stephen,  143,  180,  192. 
Bedford,  Duke  of,  204,  215,  239,  250. 
Bellomont,   Governor,    vacating  act    of, 
30.  32- 


Bernouilli,  James,  ir. 

Betrayed  Inhabitants,  etc.,  To  the,  342, 
343- 

Board  of  Trade,  the,  reports  on  land,  35, 
36,  86,  103 ;  report  on  the  province  of 
New  York,  249,  253,  254. 

Boston  riots,  313,  314. 

Bowdoin,  James,  14. 

Bradford,  Attorney  General,  death  of, 
252. 

Bradford,  William,  4. 

Buffon,  George,  Comte  de,   16. 

Burnet,  William,  arrival  in  New  York,  33, 
95,  109;  plans  of.  III,  112,  167;  un- 
popularity of,  116,  117. 

Campbell,  Laughlin,  63,  93,  127,  128. 

Campbell,  Lieutenant  Donald,  93. 

Canada,  expedition  against,  142;  ex- 
pedition abandoned,  178;  second 
expedition  proposed,  177,  179,  180, 
197,  202,  210;   surrender  of,  267. 

Catherwood,  Secretary,  220,  223,  233, 
234,  241,  253,  254. 

Chambers,  John,  252,  255,  267,  274, 
278. 

Chandos,  Duke  of,  40. 

Charles,  Mr.  Robert,  203,  249,  265,  266, 
286. 

Charlotte  rebellion,  the,  356,  357. 

Choat,  Colonel,  221. 

Clarke,  George,  commander-in-chief,  58, 
126,  129,  130;  connection  with  the 
"oblong,"  40,  121;  land  policy,  59, 
63,  127;  letter  from,  62;  relations 
with  Colden,  37,  116,  118,  160. 

Clinton,  Governor,  appointment,  130; 
arrival,  67,  132;  helplessness,  141, 
142,  143,  197,  221,  227,  228,  238; 
letters  to  Colden,  74,  158,  165,  173, 
199,  204,  205,  209,  216,  218,  233,  241, 
244;  messages,  152,  167,  183,  186, 
187,  188,  211,  225,  227;  mistaken 
policy  of  administration  of,  189,  224, 
225,  226;  speeches,  151,  166,  210,  224. 

Chnton,  Mrs.,  208,  221. 


37^ 


372 


Index 


Colden,  Betty,  23,  122,  131. 

Colden,  Cadwallader,  account  of  the 
Albany  Treaty,  156, 157,  159, 160;  am- 
bition, 2,  6,  16,  131,  261;  boundary 
commissioner,  39,  64,  80;  connection 
with  the  "oblong,"  40,  41,  55,  65,  66, 
67,  121;  commander-in-chief,  80,  260, 
283,  294,  353;  educational  theories, 
20,  21,  22,  23,  24;  interest  in  the  Ind- 
ians, 5,  60,  80,  85,  98,  loi,  138,  203, 
251,  252,  293;  land  policy  as  gov- 
ernor, 91,  92,  275,  293;  letters  to  Alex- 
ander, 71,  247;  letter  to  Ayscough, 
70 ;  letter  to  Catherwood,  234 ;  letters 
to  Governor  Clinton,  138,  160,  165, 
198,  200,  203,  215,  217,  218,  222,  234, 
237,  240,  243,  247;  letters  to  Mrs. 
Colden,  131,  133,  I34,  i43.  i44,  146, 
147,  148,  153,  154,  169,  170,  171,  172; 
letters  to  Mrs.  Hill,  21,  51;  letters  to 
Sir  WiUiam  Johnson,  98,  100,  loi ; 
letter  to  Archibald  Kennedy,  159; 
letter  to  Lord  Mansfield,  335;  letter 
to  Governor  Shirley,  228;  letter  to 
Sir  Peter  Warren,  193;  letters  on 
Smith's  history,  20,  108,  270;  map 
made  by,  113;  marriage,  2;  master 
in  chancery,  3,  55,  107,  116;  me- 
morials, etc.,  on  land,  35,  36,  49,  68, 
94.  95>  961  108,  285;  on  the  cUmate 
of  New  York,  113;  on  the  Continen- 
tal Congress,  355,  358,  359;  on  the 
eastern  boundary,  88,  89;  on  the  fur 
trade,  113;  on  the  trade  of  New  York, 
113;  member  of  council,  112;  minis- 
terial criticism  of,  87,  295,  328,  346, 
347;  opinion  on  Independents,  270; 
on  lawyers,  87,  272;  on  the  judiciary, 
235,  266,  286,  336;  on  trade,  275, 
294,  360;  plan  for  colonial  govern- 
ment, 79;  relations  with  CUnton, 
176,  202,  203,  204,  209,  215,  217,  221, 
232.  238,  241,  243-249,  254,  255,  256, 
257;  report  on  Indian  trade  acts, 
114;  schemes  for  the  lieutenant-gov- 
ernorship, 157,  177,  250,  254,  256, 
265,  266,  286,  287;  success  of  these, 
273;  surveyor  general,  3,  27,  68,  69, 
107,  125,  126;  tactics  with  assembly, 
268,  272,  273,  277,  283,  284,  285,  290, 
291;  unpopularity  of,  116,  152,  155, 
167,  185,  188,  209,  269,  274,275,276, 
277,  286,  287,  290,  292,  300,  309,  310, 


311,  319,  320,  321,  323,  326,  327,  328; 

versatility,  3,  4. 
Colden,  Jane,  24. 
CoUioun,  Dr.,  223,  228. 
Collinson,  Peter,  8,  11,  12,  14,  19,  256, 

265,  274;    letter  from,  170. 
Committee  of  correspondence,  338,  339, 

354,  355,  359- 
Connecticut  boundary,  the,  38,  39,  40. 
Connecticut    River,    the,    proclaimed    by 

Colden  New  York's  eastern  boundary, 

83 ;   boundary  confirmed  by  the  king, 

103. 
Continental     Congress,     deputies     from 

New  York  to,  363. 
ConstitutioTial  Courant,    The,  316. 
Conway,  Secretary,  328. 
Cortlandt,  Philip,  143,  192. 
Cosby,  Governor,  40,  42,  51,  53,  55,  56, 

57,   58,   59,   122-126,  349. 
Crown  Point,  147,  149,  166,  178,  181,  192, 

203,  205. 
Cruger,  John,  339. 
Cunningham,  WaddeU,  300,  301,  319. 

Delancey,  Captain  John,  343. 

Delancey,  James,  member  of  council,  121; 
chief  justice,  123, 130;  chief  justice  dur- 
ing good  behaviour,  133,  137;  break 
with  Clinton,  142,  143,  145,  155,  156, 
157,  192,  199;  Ueutenant-govemor, 
203;  attacks  Colden,  212,  213,  214, 
223,  224,  231,  232,  239,  240,  253,  257; 
commander-in-chief,  258;  death,  260, 
263,  264,  274. 

Delancey,  Oliver,  20S,  221,  223,  228,  257, 
265,  274,  335. 

Delancey,  Peter,  23,  131. 

Delancey,  Stephen,  117,  121,  207. 

Delancey,   Stephen,   Jr.,   325. 

Dongan,  Governor,  29. 

Douglass,  Dr.  William,  7. 

Duane,  James,  351,  352,  358. 

Dunmore,  Lord,  346,  348;  suit  against 
Colden,  349,  350,  351,  352,  353. 

Edinburgh,  University  of,  2,  15. 

Egremont,  Earl  of,  285. 

English   colonial   policy,    217,    228,    276, 

277,  287,  294,  295,  296,  329,  330,  331, 

334,  335.  337,  346,  354. 
English  land  grants,  40,  59,  60,  90,  93, 

293- 


Index 


373 


Euler,  Leonard,  13. 

Evans's  patent,  32,  ^^,  34. 
Excise,  trouble  about  the,  236,  237,  238. 
Explanation  of  the  First  Causes  of  Ac- 
tion in  Matter,  etc.,  An,  10-15. 

Fees,  oflScial  investigation  of,  94,  95,  294, 

295- 
Fever  epidemic,  24. 
Five  Indian  Nations,  etc.,  The  History 

Of  The,  5,  19,  20. 
Fletcher,  Governor,  29,  30. 
Forshey,  Thomas,  300. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  7,  9,  11,  13,  14,  15, 

18,  20,  209;  letter  from,  242,  316,  348. 
French  aggressiveness,   110,  242. 
French  and  Indian  War,  80,  261. 

Gage,  General,  313,  314,  324,  356,  357. 

Galloway,  Joseph,  358. 

Gazette,  Bradford's,   119,   121,   122. 

Ged,  William,  18. 

George  II,  268. 

George  III,  268,  271,  299,  300,  348. 

Gooch,  Governor,  149. 

Great  Minnisink  patent,  31,  34,  97,  102. 

Grenville,    George,   325,   326. 

Greyhound,  H.  M.  S.,  239. 

Gronovius,  9,  19. 

Halifax,  Earl  of,  78,  253,  254,  256,  265, 

267,  274,  337. 
Hamilton,  President,  169. 
Hampshire  grants,  the,  81,  83,  93,  94,  103, 

104. 
Hardy,  Governor,  263,  283. 
Harison,  Francis,  40,  41,  57,  121. 
Henry,  Patrick,  347. 
Herhan,  Mr.,  18. 

Hillsborough,  Earl  of,  337,  349,  353. 
Holderness,  Earl  of,  250,  255. 
Holland,  Edward,  152,  249,  252. 
Homespun  Market,  317. 
Hopkinson,  Francis,  16. 
Horsmanden,  Daniel,  42,  125,  128,   142, 

143.  145.  156,  157,  178.  179,  180. 
192,  202,  203,  210,  223,  274,  278,  293, 
294,  301.  303.  305.  323.  332;  letters 
from, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48,51, 54,  55.  57, 61. 
Hunter,  Governor,  3,  27,  107,  108. 

Indian  conferences,    112,   141,   145,    173, 
174,  175,  206,  251. 


Indian  trade  acts,  111-115. 

Indians,  Colden's  interest  in  the,  see 
Colden. 

Indians,  praying,  iix,  112. 

Instruction  on  governmental  receipts,  280, 
350;  requiring  a  suspending  clause 
in  certain  acts,  32d  instruction, 
301.  302,  303,  304,  305;  33d  in- 
struction, 306,  307,  308,  309. 

Intercolonial  wars,  effect  of,  79,  261. 

Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Philosophy, 
An,  26. 

James,    Major   Arthur,    313,    320,    321, 

331- 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  16. 

Johnson,   Samuel,  9,   25. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  84,  85,  91,  92,  98, 
100,  104,  146;  letters  from  Johnson 
to  Clinton,  180,  181,  182,  192,  203, 
219,  226,  231,  238,  242,  249,  251,  252, 
257,  297. 

Jones,  David,  137,  201,  242,  257,  275, 
278,  293,  294,  305. 

Kalm,   Peter,  9,    19. 

Kayaderroseres,  patent  of,  31,  97,  98,  295. 
Kemp,  Attorney  General,  301. 
Kennedy,  Archibald,  119,  121,  143,  235; 

letters  from,  158,  162. 
Kennedy,  Captain  Archibald    (Jr.),  315, 

322,  328,  329. 
King's  College,  9,  79,  264,  356. 

Land  policy,  of  the  proprietary  governors, 
28;  of  Governor  Dongan,  29;  of 
Governor  Fletcher,  29,  30;  of  Gov- 
ernor Nanfan,  30;  of  Governor 
Cornbury,  31;  of  President  Schuyler, 
32;  of  Governor  Cosby,  51;  of  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Clarke,  59,  63;  of 
Lieutenant-Governor  Colden,  see 
Colden. 

Land,  fever  for,  30,  293. 

Lawyers,  the,  of  New  York,  Colden's 
opinion  of,  see  Colden;  fraternity  of, 
269,   270;    unpopularity  of,  336. 

Lincoln,  Earl  of,  132. 

Linnxus,  9,  19,  25. 

Livingston,   Peter  Van  Brugh,   339. 

Livingston,   Philip,    141,    143,    145,    156, 

157,  339- 
Livingston,   Philip,    Jr.,    339. 


374 


Index 


Livingston,  Robert,  291,  394,  304,   305, 

332.  333.  334,  336,  346. 
Livingston,   William,    269,   343. 
Logan,  James,  6,  11,  13. 
Lothian,  Marquis  of,  126,  323. 
Louisburg,  capture  of,  134,  136,  145. 
Lovelace,  Governor,  28. 
Lovelace,    Sir   Francis,   32. 
Lydius,  John  Henry,  82,  &^,  165,  219, 

220,  231. 

Martinique,  280,  293. 

McDougal,  Alexander,  344,  345,  355- 

McEvers,  James,  313,  314,  315. 

Mercury,  Gaines's  Weekly,  315. 

Militia,  revolt  of  the,   190. 

Mohawks,  the,  5,  59,   185. 

Monckton,  Governor,  278,  279,  280,  281, 

282,  283,  293. 
Montgomerie,    Governor,   40,    119,    120, 

122. 

Moore,  Sir  Henry,  319,  325,  326,  328,  330, 

ii'^,  337,  33,^,  339,  340. 
Morris,  Lewis,  42,  53,  123,  124,  125,  126, 

127. 
Morris,  Lewis,  Jr.,  119,  121,  124,  257. 

Morris,  Robert  Hunter,  232,  249,  250,  253 . 
Morris,  Roger,  333. 
Murray,   Joseph,   65,   143,   241. 
Mutiny,  the  Albany,  168,  169,  173. 

Narrative  of  some  facts  relating  to  Mr. 

Golden,  etc.,  A,  323. 
Newcastle,  Duke  of,  78,  142,  ijo,  157, 

170,  177,  202,  203,  250,  254. 
New  France,  no,  217. 
New  Hampshire,  293,  295,  334,  356. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,   12,  13. 
Niagara,   115,   178,  252,  297. 
Nicoll,  Speaker,  288. 
Nicolls,  Governor,  28. 
NoUet,  Abbe,  15. 
Non-importation    agreement,    345,    348, 

359- 

"Oblong,"  the,  40,  41,  53,  57,  65,  66,  67, 

121. 
O'Brien,  Mr.,  representing  the  Holland 

syndicate,  99,  lor,  312. 
O'Brien,  Lady  Susan,  loi,  312. 
Operation  of  Intellect  in  Animals,  The, 

as- 


Original  paper  on  a  new  method  of  print- 
ing, etc.,  18. 
Osborne,  Sir  Danvers,  258,  260. 
Oswego,  112,  116. 

Paper  money  bill,  341,  342,  346. 

Parker,  James,  316,  345. 

Partition  Acts,  34,  35,  36,  37,  86,  285. 

Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  217. 

Pelham,  Henry,   132,  238,  257. 

Pelham,  Miss,  132. 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  22,  23. 

Phihpse,  Adolph,  27,   116,   119. 

PhiUpse,  Frederick,  137,  252. 

Pitt,  William,  283. 

Pontiac,  rebellion  of,  294. 

Popple,  Alured,  letters  from,  53,  56,  59, 

122. 
Port  Act,  the,  354,  3SS- 
Post-boy,  The  New  York  Weekly,  157. 
Pownall,  John,  265,  286,  354. 
Prat,  Chief  Justice  Benjamin,  277,  278, 

283;    letter  to  speaker,  287,  293,  294. 
Pretender,  the,  126. 
Principles  of  morality,  25. 
Provisions,  troubles  about  the,  49,  152, 

212,  213,  214. 

Rebel  Drummer,  the,  323. 

Rents,  early,  28. 

Review   of   the   Military   Operations   in 

North  America,  etc..  A,  262,  345. 
Riots  in  New  York,  320,  321,  338,  345, 

359,  363- 
Roberts,  Colonel  John,  148,  149,  152,  159, 

169,  180. 
Roddam,  Captain,  239,  240,  241. 
Rutherford,  John,  9;    letters  from,   134, 

^ZS,  143,  154,  163,  164;   145,  148,  250. 

Saratoga,  168,  179,  180,  183,  187. 

Schuyler,  Brandt,  192. 

Schuyler,  Colonel  Peter,  27,  32,  107,  116. 

Schuyler,   Colonel  Philip,  362. 

Scott,  John  Morin,  269,    303,  304,    309, 

345,  355- 
Sears,  Isaac,  345,  355- 
Sentinell,  The,  309. 
Shirley,    Governor,    147,    148,    177,    178, 

179,  183,  186,  206,  207,  208,  209,  238. 
Skene,  Philip,  81,  90,  91,  92. 
Smith,    William,    connection    with    the 

"oblong,"  40,  41,  55,  65,  66,  67;  127, 


Index 


375 


221,  232,  238,  241;  member  of  coun- 
cil, 252,  257;  267,  285;  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  294,  301,  304,  305. 

Smith,  William,  Jr.,  Colden  and  his 
history,  20,  128,  129,  258,  270,  271; 
Smith  and  Colden,  232,  241,279-283; 
Smith  and  the  question  of  appeals, 
see  appeals;  333,  334,  340,  345,  352. 

Sons  of  Liberty,  326,  345,  348. 

Spain,  war  with,  292. 

Stamp  Act,  the,  296,  313,  329,  330. 

Stamp  Act  Congress,  the,  316,  317,  327, 

347- 
Stamps,   the,   316,   317,   318,   322,    324; 

distributors  of,  313,  314,  315,  318. 
"State,"  Colden's,  of  Indian  affairs,  251. 
State  of  the  Province  of  New  York,  325. 
Stereotyping,  17,  18. 
Sugar  Act,  the,  275,  295. 
Supreme  Court,  justices  of  the,  method 

of  appointment,  266 ;  bill  altering  their 

terms,  272,  273,  274,  275,  277,  278, 

284,  285. 

Tea,  New  York's  reception  of,  353. 
Ticonderoga,  262. 
Trade,  restrictions  of,  296. 
Tryon,  Governor,  353. 


Van  Dam,  Rip,  57,  126,  127,  349. 
Van  Rensselaer's  patent,  101. 
"Vindication,"   Colden's,  328,  331,  332, 

333.  334- 
Von  der  Rey,  M.,  18. 

Waddell,  Robert  Ross,  301. 
Wagachemek,  patent  of,  31,  34. 
Walpole,  Horace,  4,  78,  95,  118. 
Walpole,  Sir  Horace,  108,  250,  258. 
Walpole,    Sir   Robert,    170. 
Warren,  Sir  Peter,  145,  146,  147,  148,  155, 
186,  192,  199,  200,  203,  223,  231,  238. 
Watts,  Mr.,  274,  281,  282,  333. 
Wawayanda,  patent  of,  31,  97. 
Wentworth,  Governor  (Benning),  81,  82, 

93- 
Westemhook  patent,  31. 
Whig  Club,  269;   defeats,  336,  339,  340; 

party,  120,  311,  358,  359;   principles^ 

264. 
Whi^The  American,  340. 
Whyte,  Robert,  15,  16,  17. 

Yale,  269,  270,  356. 
York,  James,  Duke  of,  28. 

Zenger,  John  Peter,  122. 


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